
Class UC ^' 

Book -C-^ 

GoEyriglitl^". 

COPyRICHT DEPOSm 



EDUCATION 






IN 



Religion and Morals 



.%*. 



GEORGE ALBERT COE, Ph.D. 

JOHN EVANS PROFESSOR OF MORAL AND INTELLECTUAL 
PHILOSOPHY IN NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY 



AUTHOR OF 



THE SPIRITUAL LIFE AND 
OF A MATURE MIND " 



THE RELIGION 




CHICAGO NEW^ YORK TORONTO 

FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 

LONDON AND EDINBURGH 
MCMIV 



OCT 29 1904 
notfurtgM emv» 

COPY Sr 



U 







Copyright, 1904 
Bv FLEMING H. REVIiLL COMPANY 



CHICAGO: 63 WASHINGTON STREET 
NEW YORK: 158 FIFTH AVENUE 
TORONTO: 37 RICHMOND STREET, W. 
LONDON: 21 PATERNOSTER SQUARE 
EDINBURGH: 30 ST. MARY STREET 



CONTENTS. 

PAGB. 

Preface 5 

Pakt I. 
THE THEORY. 

CHAPTER. 

I. The Place of Character in Education 11 

II. The Necessity for Religious Education.... 21 

III. God, Nature, and Man in Education 33 

IV. The Christian View of Childhood 44 

V. The Characteristics of Modern Education.. 70 

VI. Contributions of Modern Education to Re- 
ligion 85 

VII. Education as Development of Living Beings 98 

VIII. Education as Development of Persons 119 

IX. Punishment and Play 136 

X. Reality and Symbol as Means of Educa- 
tion 151 

XI. Personal and Social Forces in Education.. 171 

Paet II. 
THE CHILD. 

XII. The Religious Impulse 195 

XIII. How the Impulse Develops 208 

XIV. Periods of Development — Infancy and Child- 
hood 226 

XV. Periods of Development — Adolescence 247 

Part III. 
INSTITUTIONS. 

XVI. The Family 271 

XVII. The Sunday School 286 

XVIIL Societies and Clubs 312 

XIX. Christian Academies and Colleges 325 

XX. State Schools 348 



Part IV. 
THE PERSPECTIVE. 
XXI. The Church and the Child — A Glance 

Backward 373 

XXII. Education and Present Religious Problems. 389 

A Selected and Classified Bibliography 407 

Index 423 



PREFACE 

The present place of religious and moral 
education in our civilisation is paradoxical. 
Everybody knows that the moral health of 
society and the progress of religion depend 
largely, if not chiefly, upon the training of 
the young in matters that pertain to char- 
acter, yet no other part of education receives 
so little specific attention. The growth of 
popular government has increased the impor- 
tance of high character in the people, yet no 
substitute has been found, one has scarcely 
been sought, for the dogmatic religious in- 
struction that has been properly excluded 
from the people's schools. At a time when 
the massing of the people in cities is exposing 
children as never before to the forces of evil, 
family training in religion and morals suf- 
fers, according to all accounts, a decline. At 
the bloom period of the Sunday school, com- 
plaints arise that the populace is ignorant, 
perhaps growingly so, of the Bible, and that 
the rate of accessions to the churches is de- 
creasing. The age of reform in education, 
when we fancy that the child is at last 



6 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

coming to his own, is an age that neglects the 
most important end of education, and stands 
perplexed as to the means to this end. 

We are, in fact, confronted by an emer- 
gency in respect to education in morals and 
religion. The emergency is not due, how- 
ever, to poverty of resources. In the state 
school and the Sunday school we have two 
vast organisations which we may bring, when- 
ever we will, under the more complete con- 
trol of the highest educational principles. 
Ihe nineteenth century made extraordinary 
progress in respect to the methods of teach- 
ing, and the results are ready to be utilised 
in church and home and school. Modern psy- 
chology, especially the child-study movement, 
is accumulating knowledge that has impor- 
tant applications to religious and moral cul- 
ture. The store of biblical knowledge and of 
knowledge of religion is increasing, and it 
demands to be spread abroad. 

To help bring this supply into closer touch 
with the need is the aim of this book. It is 
not chiefly a book of methods, nor is it merely 
a treatise on educational theory. It is rather 
an effort to bring the broadest philosophy of 
education into the closest relation to prac- 
tice; to show how principles lead directly to 



PREFACE. 



methods, and so to strike the golden mean 
between unpractical theorising and mere 
routine. I have tried, likewise, to exhibit 
the principles and forces of religious and 
moral education in their highest concreteness 
as factors in the general movement of human 
life. A large part of our present difficulty 
lies just in the fact that our philosophy of 
life has been isolated from practical methods 
of training for life, and that this training 
has been isolated from the actual life of the 
world. 

I have made no attempt to separate the 
religious from the moral factors in educa- 
tion, for the simple reason that they belong 
together in practice. Morals are not religion, 
and religion is not morals; nevertheless full- 
grown religion includes morals. The stand- 
point of Christianity, moreover, is that of 
wholeness of life, from which no human 
good can be excluded. 

The division of the book into relatively 
short chapters, and of the chapters into num- 
bered sections will, it is hoped, help to adapt 
the whole to the use of classes for teacher- 
training without detracting from the com- 
fort of the general reader. Readers who de- 
sire to pursue further any of the topics here- 



8 EDUCATION IX RELIGION AND MORALS 

in discussed will find information as to read- 
ing in the classified bibliography that is 
appended to the work. 

George Albert Cob. 
Evanston, Illinois, September, 1904. 



PART I 
THE THEORY 



CHAPTER I 

THE PLACE OF CHARACTER IN EDUCATION 

1. Three Factors What makes schools 

in the Idea of -11^ 

Education. necessary, and what are 

they for? These questions 
can be answered by a simple analysis of facts 
with which everyone is familiar. Schools 
exist, in the first place, because children exist, 
that is, because the race includes individuals 
who are incomplete but capable of developing. 
In the second place, schools exist because 
there are higher and lower kinds of mature 
life. Children are schooled for something. A 
conception of a goal, or a kind of life that is 
really worth living, presides, explicitly or im- 
plicitly, over all educational effort. Finally, 
schools exist because adults possess accumu- 
lated results of experience as to what is the 
better and what the less good life. Education 
gives to children the benefit of experience 
other than their own, and in advance of their 
own. Thus the factors involved in the idea 
of education are these: An immature being, 
ft goal or destiny for life, and older human 



12 KDUCATIOX IX RELIGION AND MOUALh? 



beings who Qan help the younger to realize 
this goal or destiny. 

2. Over- Emphasis Each of these factors has 
Po?nt*of\1ew* been at some time so promi- 
nent in the minds of men 
as to obscure one or both of the others. Up 
to comparatively recent times, the value of 
adult experience has so occupied the thoughts 
of educators as to prevent them from seeing 
the necessity of understanding childhood. 
Adult interests, ways of looking at things, 
rules of conduct, were assumed as a standard 
for all, and the school accordingly aimed to 
produce conformity more than it aimed to 
secure development. "Modern" education is 
based, first of all, upon recognition of the 
child as one of the determining factors. The 
differences between the child mind and the 
adult mind are noted, and the whole notion of 
education has become an application of the 
notion of development. 

8. Over- Emphasis Over-empliasis upon the 

upon th© Goal. i j i- p 

goal or destiny oi man is a 
general characteristic of mediaeval education. 
The school was a handmaid of the church, 
and the church conceived her mission to men 
as that of saving their souls from eternal per- 
dition. A religion broad enough to include 



I'LACK Ol'' CHARACTER IN EDUCATION 13 



everything that is worthy of being a part of 
our temporal life, and a religious education 
equally broad, were not characteristic of the 
period. The mediEeval view of religion was 
exclusive rather than inclusive; it contrasted 
the goods of religion with the goods of this 
world, the blessings of eternal salvation with 
the fleeting things of time; and as a result 
it could not utilise in education the whole of 
accumulated experience, but only a part of 
it. The educator was the priest— not the 
man within the priest, but the priest as rep- 
resenting the goal of life abstracted from 
the content of life. For the same reason 
the point of view of the child himself was 
ignored, and the way was left open for re- 
pression and forced conformity as distin- 
guished from development. 

4. Over- Emphasis At the present time this 
upon the Child. , , ^ 

tendency is no longer 

dominant. Education has been brought close 
to the life that now is, so close, in fact, that 
we sometimes forget to ask what this life 
really signifies, what its goal is. Moreover, 
another temptation to forget what the child 
is to be educated for, grows out of the ex- 
traordinary emphasis that modern education 
places upon the child himself. The laws of 



14 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

the child-mind yield laws for educating that 
mind. We are not to conform the child to 
adult points of view, but the teacher is to 
conform himself to the point of view of the 
pupil. As Froebel says, "Education and in- 
struction should from the first be passive, 
observant, protective, rather than prescribing, 
determining, interfering. ' ' ^ From too ex- 
clusive attention to this principle, modern 
education (though not Froebel) tends to for- 
get its own goal. It looks backward to the 
laws and forces of the child's mind, rather 
than forward to the destiny that is to be 
achieved. Nevertheless education is for 
something. It is development, but develop- 
ment toward something as well as away from 
something.^ 
5. The Aim of What, then, is the goal of 

Education. Is it i ^. „ 

knowledge? education? 

Most persons, if asked 
what the child is supposed to receive from 
the educational process, would reply that 
he receives instruction, knowledge, intel- 
lectual training. The success of a school 

1 W. H. Herford : The Students' Froebel. Boston, 
1894, p. 5. 

' "It is the danger of the 'new education' that It re- 
gards the child's present powers and interests as some- 
thing finally signilicant in themselves." — John Dewey: 
The Child and the Curriculum (Chicago, 1002), page 20. 



PLACE OF CHARACTER IN EDUCATION 15 

is popularly measured by the rapidity 
with which its pupils appear to in- 
crease their stock of learning. This notion 
arises in our minds in a natural way, for it 
is a result of a long historical process, and— 
we may add—of an ancient error. Man has 
been defined as a rational animal, and his 
moral and spiritual life have been supposed 
to rest upon and grow out of a set of ideas 
either reasoned out or believed in. Knowl- 
edge and intellectual culture were therefore 
regarded as the essential marks of an edu- 
cated man. We shall have occasion in other 
chapters to discuss the relation of knowing 
and doing. Here it is sufficient to note 
merely that the intellectualistic notion of man 
has been abandoned by the thought of our 
time, or rather set into relation to the com- 
plementary truth that man is will as well as 
intellect. A corresponding change is taking 
place in our notions of education. 
6. Is it Power? With the enlarging con- 

trol over nature, and the 
vast expansion of commerce and industry that 
have followed the triumphs of modern sci- 
ence and invention, there has arisen a de- 
mand for men who can do things— men who 
can build railroads and steamships, manage 



16 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

vast properties, organise and lead men. 
Under the influence of these practical de- 
mands, the populace has tended to modify 
its conception of the aim of education in the 
direction of power and effectiveness as dis- 
tinguished from both learning and mental 
acuteness. Instead of the "clear, cold, logic- 
engine" which mere intellectualism regards 
as the proper product of education, the drift 
of popular thought is now toward another 
kind of mental engine, the kind that keeps the 
practical machinery of life in motion. But 
we cannot stop here. For modern commerce 
and industry are not more distinguished by 
a new relation of man to things than they 
are by a new relation of man to man. The 
relations between men are becoming wider 
and more complex; there is greater depend- 
ence of one upon another; and just at this 
juncture the modern city springs up to teach 
us that we are still in the rudiments of the 
art of living together. Meanwhile the ex- 
periment in popular government is seen to 
depend for its outcome upon the kind of char- 
acter that prevails among the people. 

7. Is it Social These conditions are 

Adjustment? . j.-, ^ ^e ^ 

lorcmg upon thoughtful 

men a conviction that the great need of our 



PLACE OF CHARACTER IN EDUCATION 17 

time is a full-grown, wisely directed social 
consciousness, and that the development 
thereof must be the aim of education. The 
school is an instrument of society for social 
ends. It must not merely train the intellect,;; 
impart knowledge, and develop power; it 
must also fit the individual for occupying 
his proper place in the social whole. The 
day is already past when an intelligent edu- 
cator can think that his work consists in train- 
ing or instructing individuals as such. Of 
course education is training of individuals, 
and more attention than ever is being paid 
to individuality, but the final consideration is 
not the individual taken by himself, but fill- 
ing the proper place of an individual in so- 
ciety. This implies respect for the rights and 
interests of one's fellows, readiness to co-ope- 
rate for common ends, and a sense of political 
responsibility. Thus the end of true educa- 
tion is seen to fall within, not outside of, the 
sphere of ethics. 

o rrj M.- ■ That education aims not 

8. Education is 

Ethical in both at mere knowledge or mere 

End and Process, p^^^.^^ ^f ^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^ 

rather at knowledge and power put to right 
uses is fully recognized by the educational 
thought, though not by the popular opinion, 



18 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MOKALS 

of the day/ The advance movement in reli- 
gious education takes its start, not in an edu- 
cational atmosphere that is indifferent to the 
higher values of life, but in one that is al- 
ready suffused with moral aspiration. Here 
and there, no doubt, a teacher entertains a con- 
trary ideal of his work ; probably the number 
of teachers who have not awakened to serious 
reflection upon the nature of their work is 
considerable; but certainly the general mass 
of those who do reflect will be found by any 

* Witness the following typical definitions and proposi- 
tions : 

Nicholas Murray Butler : "Education is 'a gi'adual ad- 
justment to the spiritual possessions of the race." — ^ITie 
Meaning of Education (New York, 1898), page 17. 

J. G. Compayre : Education is "the sum of the reflec- 
tive efforts by which we aid nature in the development 
of the physical, intellectual, and moral faculties of man. 
In view of his perfection, his happiness, and his social 
destination." — Lectures on Pedagogy (Boston, 1893), 
pages 12f. 

William James : "Education cannot be better 
described than by calling it the organization of acquired 
habits of conduct and tendencies to behavior." — Talks 
to Teachers (New York, 1899), page 29. 

Herbert Spencer : "To prepare us for complete living 
is the function which education has to discharge." — 
Education (New York, 1872). 

John Dewey : "I believe that education is the funda- 
mental method of social progress and reform I 

believe that education is a regulation of the process of 
coming to share in the social consciousness." — My Peda- 
gogic Creed (New York, 1897), page 16. 

Arnold Tompkins : "The true end of teaching is one 
with the true aim of life ; and each lesson must be pre- 
sented with the conscious purpose of making the most 
out of the life of the one taught." — The Philosophy of 
Teaching (Boston, 1895), page 71. 

J. P. Munroe : "The question to be asked at the end 
of an educational step is not "What has the child 
learned?' but 'What has the child become?'" — The 
Educational Ideal (Boston, 1896). page 2. 



PLACE OF CHARACTER IN EDUCATION 19 

inquirer to occupy the ethical standpoint. 
Moreover, the ethical end is not thought of as 
a far-off culmination of one's education, but 
as an idea that is to be realized in every step 
of the educational process. The child is to 
grow continuously in the moral, as in the in- 
tellectual life, and these two aspects of life 
are regarded as being properly inseparable. 
Every study is to contribute directly to the 
growth of the moral self. The school, in fact, 
now becomes a miniature society united by 
the ethical bond of regard for one another, 
and each task is wrought with an ethical pur- 
pose or inspiration as real as that of mature 
men in their respective callings.^ 

9. Education We are now in position to 

must take Cog- n -, . i „ 

nizance of the formulate a general concep- 
true Nature and tion of education. Educa- 

Destiny of Man. ,• • jv j. 2. -4. 

tion IS any eftort to assist 

the development of an immature human being 
toward the proper goal of life. This defini- 
tion takes full account of the three factors 
which we noted at the outset. It recognises the 

^ "I believe that the school is primarily a social in- 
stitution. Education being a social process, the school 
Is simply the form of community life in which all those 
agencies are concentrated that will be most effective In 
bringing the child to share in the Inherited resources of 
the race, and to use his own powers for social ends. I 
believe that education, therefore, is a process of living 
and not a preparation for future living." — .John Dewey : 
My Pedagogic Creed (New York, 1897), page 7. 



20 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

educator who makes the effort from the stand- 
point of maturity, the child with his laws of 
development, and the truth that some kind of 
life is better than other kinds. Yet the defi- 
nition remains formal because it does not tell 
us what sort of life is worth living and de- 
veloping toward. It assumes the ethical point 
of view, but it leaves the ethical ideal in un- 
certainty. We make progress if we say that 
the proper goal of life is social existence, and 
so change our definition to the following: 
Education is any effort to assist the develop- 
ment of an immature human being toward 
social adjustment and eiifieiency. But we can- 
not rest in this definition unless we are will- 
ing to say that the proper goal of life is 
simply social adjustment and efficiency, and 
nothing more. Certainly education cannot 
accept as its end anything less than the high- 
est destiny that man is capable of. Therefore, 
any satisfactory answer to the question, 
"What is education?" must include an an- 
swer to the question, "What is the highest 
capacity of man 1 ' ' 



CHAPTER II 

THE NECESSITY FOR RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 

10. Religious We have just seen that 

Education is that -, ,• -t n 

which Recognises education necessarily refers 

Man's Divine to the goal of life, whatever 

*^ '"^" that goal may be. "The 

true end of teaching is one with the true 
aim of life." According to our concep- 
tion of the meaning of life, then, will 
be our conception of education. He who re- 
gards the acquisition of mere things as man's 
supreme interest will think of education in 
narrowly utilitarian terms. To him it will 
signify apprenticeship to a trade, the mastery 
of manual and mental tools, the learning of 
such facts and the cultivation of such habits 
as will enable one to utilise nature's resources 
and get the better of one's fellows. On the 
other hand, he who thinks of life in ethical 
terms will think of education in ethical terms 
also. To him "the most truly practical edu- 
cation is that which imparts the most numer- 
ous and the strongest motives to noble ac- 
tion."^ He realises that "none of us liveth 
to himself, and none dieth to himself," but 

1 Thomas Davidson: History of Education (New York, 
1901), page 260. 



22 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

rather that the individual can realise himself 
only through society. Education then be- 
comes a means of introducing young life to its 
proper place in the social organism. If, 
finally, we believe that complete self-realisa- 
tion requires not only human society, but also 
fellowship with God, then it follows that for 
us education is the effort to assist immature 
human beings toward complete self-realisation 
in and through fellowship with both their fel- 
lows and God. Under this conception true 
education does not stop with the development 
of individual power, as under the first of the 
notions just described, or with mere social 
adjustment, as under the second, but it in- 
cludes them both and also something more. It 
aims at individual power, but forbids the 
selfish use thereof; it aims at social adjust- 
ment, but holds that complete society includes 
God and man. 

11. It Aims (1) to This standpoint may be 

Develop the '' 

Religious Nature, approached in three other 
ways, from each of which 
it receives further illumination. First, since 
education is effort to develop the child, to 
bring his germinal powers to maturity, we 
may ask whether the child has a religious 
nature, as he has also a social nature. The 



NECESSITY FOR RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 23 

detailed answer to this question, and the evi- 
dence therefor, will be given later. Here it is 
sufficient to note that the possession of a re- 
ligious nature on the part of the child is a 
necessary presupposition of religious educa- 
tion. For, as we have already seen, to edu- 
cate is not to secure conformity to adult ideas 
and practices, but to help the immature 
powers of the child to unfold and to grow. 
The demand for religious education that is 
being heard at the present day does not add 
anything to the formal conception of educa- 
tion as development of native capacities to- 
ward complete living, but it asserts that, just 
as the social destiny is p re-formed in the men- 
tal structure, so also is the religious destiny, 
and that in any complete education the one 
as well as the other must be developed.^ 

12. (2) To Trans- We have just approached 

mit the Religious ,. . i ,• .i i 

Heritage of the religious education through 

Race. a consideration of the child. 

We may also approach it 
through the conception of the adult who un- 
dertakes to help the child. For, included in 
the accumulated experience whereby men are 
fitted to help childhood is religion. Butler 

^ See addresses by George A. Coe and Edwin D. Star- 
buck in Proceedings of The Religious Education Associa- 
tion (Cliicago, 1903), pages 44-59. 



/ 



24 EDTJCUTIOX IN RIOLIGIOX AND MORALS 

defines education as "a gradual adjustment 
to the spiritual possessions of the race. ' '^ Un- 
der the term "spiritual possessions" he in- 
cludes the scientific inheritance, the literary 
inheritance, the aesthetic inheritance, the in- 
stitutional (or politico-social) inheritance, 
and the religious inheritance, to all five of 
which the child is entitled. Through long 
labor and pain, through experiment and re- 
flection, the race has acquired ideas, habits, 
institutions, all of which are of recognised 
worth, but few of which could be acquired by 
anyone through his unaided powers even in 
the longest lifetime. Education puts each 
new generation into possession of these race- 
acquisitions. As someone has said, this en- 
ables each generation to stand upon the shoul- 
ders of the last. Applying this to religious 
<iducation, we may say that it is the process 
whereby adults who have achieved something 
of right relations to their fellows and to God 
assist the young to reach similar relations. 

13. (3) To Adjust The third method of ap- 
the Race to its , , , . , . , 

Divine proach borrows a biological 

Environment. notion. Life includes ad- 

justment to environment, 
and the highest life is that which has the most 

» Nicholas Murray Butler : The Meaning of Education 
(New Yorli, 1898), Lecture L 



NECESSITY FOR RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 25 

far-reaching adaptations. An animal with 
eyes adjusts itself to distant objects, as well 
as to those that are in contact with the body. 
When memory appears it results in adapta- 
tion to the invisible and the future. 
Mind as a whole can, in fact, be looked 
upon as an instrument of adjustment. 
Conscience and the social instinct bring 
about conduct adapted to the social en- 
vironment, and, if religion be true, the re- 
ligious impulse adjusts the individual to God, 
who environs us all. Under this biological 
figure, education may be looked upon as a 
special factor in the universal process of re- 
lating living beings to their world, and re- 
ligious education as the most universal or far- 
reaching part thereof. Moreover, since the 
religious aim in education includes the ethical 
or social, religious education is the adaptation 
not merely of individuals but also of society 
or the species to the divine environment. Ac- 
cepting the notion that education consists of 
acts performed by society for social ends, we 
reach this final outcome of our biological fig- 
ure: In religious education organised man 
provides for a progressive adaptation of the 
race to its divine environment.^ 

* "Education Is the eternal process of superior adjust- 
ment of the physically and mentally developed, free, con- 



26 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 



14. Religious From every point of 

Education not ,i ,. • j 

Distinguished by ^lew, then, religious educa- 

Its Method. tion is simply education 

that completes itself by 
taking account of the whole child, the whole 
educator, and the whole goal or destiny of 
man. It is not distinguished— primarily, at 
least, and in the sequel we shall see not at 
all— by any peculiarity of method or by 
any peculiarity in its means, such as 
the Bible, the catechism, or the personal 
influence of the parent or teacher. While 
it is inevitable that the details of ma- 
terial and of method will vary with varying 
conceptions of the end in view, the end, not 
the means, is the fundamental point of dif- 
ference. The Sunday school is a school in 
the same sense as the public institution that 
bears that name. Home training is training 
in the same sense that the word "training" 
bears in either the Sunday school or the day 
school. Schools and training, of whatever 
kind, rest finally upon general laws of the 
mind and body of the being that is to be de- 
veloped. 

Perhaps the simplest illustration of this 

sclous, human being to God, as manifested In the Intel- 
lectual, emotional, and volitional environment of man." 
— H. H. Home: The Philosophy of Education (New 
York, 1904), page 285. 



NECESSITY FOR RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 27 

point is the law of habit. This law is basic in 
all training whatsoever because it is the gen- 
eral method by which a movable element of 
mind or character becomes a fixture. It ap- 
plies to the intellect no more than it does to 
the emotions ; to the outward act no more than 
to the inward motive or ideal. The only way 
in which Ave can make what we wish to out 
of an undeveloped being is to cause him to 
form an appropriate habit. What is true of 
the law of habit is true also of all the general 
laws of the mind that underlie education. 
They underlie all education, and necessarily 
so. The primary difference between religious 
and other education, accordingly, is the end 
in view, or the conception of human life that 
it represents. 

15. What^ is If^ then, there is here any 

Education? fundamental antithesis at 

all, it is not only an an- 
tithesis ; it is a conflict. For the sake of con- 
venience of language, and especially because 
the public schools of our country do not give 
religious instruction, "general" education 
has come to be distinguished not only from 
technical and professional training but also 
from training in religion. There results an 
unfortunate habit of thought. Education in 



28 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

religion is looked upon as a kind of special 
training, or as a side current apart from the 
main gulf-stream of culture. Like the train- 
ing of bookkeepers, the study of Sanskrit, or 
the exploration of the polar regions, it is sup- 
posed to pertain simply to those who have a 
special interest therein. The Sunday school, 
and even religious training within the family 
are therefore regarded as mere appendages of 
the educational system. But religious educa- 
tion can no more accept this place than reli- 
gion itself can consent to be a mere depart- 
ment of life. If religion were just a specialty 
of priests, monks, and nuns ; or if it belonged 
to Sunday, but not to Aveek days ; or if it ap- 
plied to only a part of our conduct and our 
ideals, then, indeed, religious education and 
general education might be contrasted with 
each other. In that case we would do well to 
change our terminology. Reserving the terra 
education to designate the development of the 
man as such, we should use the term training 
to indicate the special preparation for a par- 
ticular occupation or function, as medical, 
legal, business, or religious training. But re- 
ligion claims to belong to the man as such. It 
assumes to include morals, or the relations 
between man and man, and indeed to reach to 



NECESSITY FOR RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 29 

every aim or ideal whatsoever. Whatever re- 
ligion may have been to early man, and what- 
ever it may be to other civilisations than our 
own, to us it is an all-inclusive, all-command- 
ing principle, the very stuff that human life 
is made of, or it is nothing at all. Conse- 
quently, for us religious education is simply 
education in the complete sense of that term, 
or else it is not education, but mere special 
training. It is therefore not strictly correct 
to call it a part, even a necessary part, of 
general education. Special times and places 
and material may, of course, be set apart with 
a special view to the religious development of 
the child, but only in order that his whole 
development, in every department, may be 
raised to the religious level.^ 
16. The Unity of In reality we have here 

ptom^lhe' ^^^ reached the principle of the 
Psychological unity of education. The 

oin o lew. principle asserts that edu- 
cation is not made up by aggregating 

* Nicholas Murray Butler opposes the use of the 
term 'religious education' on the ground that education 
Is a unitary process and that religious training, intel- 
lectual training, etc., apart from the whole, have no real 
existence as education. — See Lecture I in Principles of 
Religious Education (New York, 1900). With this gen- 
eral point of view I think we may agree at the same 
time that we employ the term religious education to 
designate — not a part of general education, but — the 
essential character of any truly general development of 
the human person. 



30 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

parts, each of which exists on its own 
account, but that it is rather like the sin- 
gle life that realises itself in the various 
organs of a human body. The reasons for this 
point of view are three-fold. In the first 
place, the child himself is a unit. He is not a 
bundle of faculties— an intellect, plus a will, 
plus a heart, etc. The old fashioned faculty- 
psychology, which thus divided the man, is a 
thing of the past. The whole child is at work 
in each of his studies, not memory in one, 
reason in another, perception in a third ; and 
if the teacher cannot get the whole child thus 
engaged the effort at teaching fails. The idea 
of education, accordingly, is not that the child 
acquires first one thing, then another, but that 
he is first one thing, and then he develops in- 
to something different. The principle of unity 
thus carries us back once more to the ethical 
conception of education," that is, the concep- 
tion of what the child is becoming. 
17. (2) From the From the ethical point of 

Ethical Point of . , ■ •, , -,■ 

Yje^_ View, also, we quickly dis- 

cover that education, right- 
ly considered, is a unit. For the ethical 
view of life is an effort to introduce into life, 
or to discover within life, organisation, har- 
mony, unity. We begin our existence as crea- 



NECESSITY FOR RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 31 

tures of mere impulse. The little child is ab- 
sorbed first in one situation, then in another; 
he does not connect them or feel the need of 
doing so ; as far as his consciousness goes, life 
is framentary and unorganised. What edu- 
cation has to do for him is to bring into his 
impulses due subordination of one to an- 
other ; into his fragmentary interests a princi- 
ple of organisation ; into his life as a whole a 
purpose and a meaning. That is, he is to de- 
velop toward an ideal self, and this ideal 
presides as mistress over the whole process. 
Education is unitary, then, not merely be- 
cause in the actual self of the child there is 
no separation of faculties, but also because 
the ideal of a completely unified self is an 
implicit principle of the whole development. 

18. (3) From the The unified self with 

Religious Point i • i . i • i - i • £ 

of View. which ethics has to do is, or 

course, the social self , or 
the self' realised in society. Religion alone, in 
strictness, looks to that complete unification 
of the self which includes not only my fel- 
lows but also my entire world. Ethics as 
such is usually considered as having to do 
merely with human relationships; religion 
with our relations to the ultimate ground of 
our being. Now, whether or not religious 



32 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

faith is well founded, the aspiration for unity 
with the ultimate ground of our being is im- 
plicit in all education. The endeavor of all 
of us as men is to find ourselves at home in 
this our world. The practical interest in con- 
trolling nature and the theoretical interest in 
knowing her blend into the one interest of 
overcoming the apparent opposition between 
the self and its world. Self-realisation can 
never be complete except as an ultimate unity 
is found here. Thus religion, instead of be- 
ing a department of education, is an implicit 
motive thereof. It is the end that presides 
over the beginning and gives unity to all 
stages of the process. 



CHAPTER III 

GOD, NATURE, AND MAN IN EDUCATION 

19. The Narrow Thus far we have con- 

and the Broad . ^ j i . • i 

Sense of sidered education simply as 

"Education." a voluntary activity on the 

part of men, an effort of the 
older to help the younger. This is education 
in the narrow or strictly technical sense. But 
there is a larger sense of the term, also, ac- 
cording to which it designates everything that 
enters into the process of shaping the char- 
acter of the child, and finally everything that 
shapes mankind in the large.^ Thus we 
speak of the education of a nation, as Israel, 
or of the human race, as well as of individu- 
als. We say, also, that nature helps in vari- 
ous ways to educate the race and the indi- 
vidual, and that "experience is a stern school- 
master." In the present chapter an effort 
will be made to view religious education in 
this large way, and especially to connect the 
two obvious factors in it, man the educator 

i Cf. J. K. F. Rosenkranz : The Philosophy of Educa- 
tion (New York, 1889), pages 10, 21f. 



34 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

and nature the educator, with God as edu- 
cator in the supreme sense. 

20. The Divine The thought that God 

Education of ^ , . ^ 

Igpggl^ educates men is a very old 

one. "The law," says the 
Letter to the Galatians (3: 24) "hath been 
our tutor to bring us unto Christ." This ap- 
pears to have been the general standpoint of 
the early Christians with reference to the his- 
tory of Israel. That history was a divine 
preparation of the nation for receiving the 
supreme revelation in Christ. God spoke to 
the fathers through the prophets, and by this 
means gradually brought about the fulness of 
the time that made the sending of his own 
Son a practicable measure. Herein the early 
Christians did not read the notion of race 
education into the ancient scriptures ; it was 
already there, and very close to the surface, 
too. The story of Israel is a story of growth 
from small beginnings to a great nation; of 
the setting of tasks, of specific instruction, of 
testing, punishing and rewarding, all with a 
view to bringing to maturity the "son" who 
was "called out of Egypt" (Hosea, 11: 1). 
Jehovah was a father, and Israel was a child 
who was being brought up. 



GOD. NATURE AND MAN IN EDUCATION 35 

21. The Divine By extending this jiotion 

the^FTace? ° i^st a little farther, we 

come to think of divine 
providence in the whole of human history as 
a divine education of the race. God does not 
merely judge the nations, punishing evil and 
rewarding good; he also trains the nations 
toward righteousness. The growth of civili- 
sation is the progress of mankind in this di- 
vine school. Particularly in the history of 
religion do we find this manifest. Lessing, 
and the philosophers of religion who have 
built upon his great conception of the divine 
education of the human race, have taught us 
to see in the religions of the world a gradual 
self-revelation of God to men. This is a 
modern idea, and yet the roots of it were 
certainly present in the mind of Paul when 
he proclaimed his philosophy of religion to 
the Athenians. God, he declared, not only 
created men, but also appointed their national 
existence, and implanted in them an impulse 
to seek after him. Further, God recognises, 
as flowing from this divinely implanted im- 
pulse, lower as well as higher stages of re- 
ligion, and in Christ he brings to a culmina- 
tion what was dimly revealed even in ignorant 
modes of worship (Acts 17: 22-30). At a 



36 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

later point in our study we shall see how true 
it is that the race begins its career in an in- 
fantile state and moves toward maturity only 
through a gradual process of education. 

22. The Divine But the race consists of 

Education of .,..,, , ,i j- 

the Individual. individuals, and SO the di- 
vine education of the race 
is the divine education of individual boys and 
girls. Boys and girls, let us say, rather than 
men and women. For the plasticity that is 
pre-requisite to education largely disappears 
when youth passes into full manhood and 
womanhood. Maturity is, indeed, the great 
period for acquiring things and knowledge, 
but not for forming character. As far as race 
progress in character is concerned, the chief 
contribution that maturity can make is to ac- 
cumulate the means and instruments for mak- 
ing the next generation better than the pres- 
ent through improved education.^ If God is 

1 "I believe that education is tlie fundamental method 
of social progress and reform I believe that all re- 
forms which rest simply upon the enactment of law, or 
the threatening of certain penalties, or upon changes in 
mechanical or outward arrangements, are transitory and 
futile.... I believe that the community's duty to educa- 
tion is, therefore, its paramount moral duty. By law 
and punishment, by social agitation and discussion, so- 
ciety can regulate and form itself in a more or less hap- 
hazard and chance way. But through education society 
can formulate its own purposes, can organise its own 
means and resources, and thus shape itself with definite- 
ness in the direction in which it wishes to move." — John 
Dewey: My Pedagogic Creed (New York, 1897), pages 
16 f. 



GOD, NATURE AND MAN IN EDUCATION 37 

the supreme educator of the race, he is for 
the same reason the supreme educator of each 
child. This aspect of the educational prob- 
lem has been almost entirely overlooked, even 
by religious teachers. Education has been 
persistently thought of as something done for 
the child by his elders, while the possibility 
that it may consist still more in something 
vrrought within the character by the Divine 
Spirit has been scarcely dreamed of. It will 
therefore be worth while to see how we are to 
connect the thought of God as the great edu- 
cator of the race with the humble, everyday 
effort of parent or teacher to bring up a child 
in the way that he should go. 

23. The Divine First of all, the child 

Hand in the i? ^i i? r-i t i. 

Religious Nature comes forth from God bear- 

of Man- ing the image of the Crea- 

tor. That God created man 
in his own image may once have seemed to 
imply many grotesque notions of God, as that 
he has a physical form which ours resembles. 
But the phrase never loses its power over us 
because, with every advance in our concep- 
tions of God, we discover something corre- 
sponding thereto in the structure of our own 
mind. Man has a religious nature. The defi- 
nite establishment of this proposition is per- 



S8 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

haps the greatest service that the history and 
psychology of religion have performed. Not 
very long ago men were still asking whether 
religion might not have arisen through priest- 
craft or statecraft, or at least through some 
incidental feature of human experience. Ee- 
ligion was looked upon as a theory or belief 
which men had formed for themselves some- 
what as we form our hypotheses of inhabit- 
ants in other planets. Some tribes were said 
to be entirely without religion, and hence it 
was inferred that religion does not belong to 
humanity as such. But the ' tribe destitute of 
religion' is found to be purely imaginary, 
and the history of religion begins its recital 
with the affirmation that man as such has a 
religious impulse out of w^hich have sprung 
all the religions of the world.^ 

Out of this impulse springs, not less, 
the entire religious development of the indi- 
vidual. Here is something that neither 
parent nor teacher imparts, something that 
must first be there if their labor is to 
have any religious effectiveness. Into the 
constitution of every one of us God has 
wrought his plan for human life. In every 
genuine utterance of the religious impulse 

1 See, for example, Morris Jastrow : The Study of Re- 
ligion (New York, 1901), pages 195 f., 293, et passim. 



GOD. NATURE AND MAN IN EDUCATION 39 

there is manifested 'prevenient grace,' the 
divine empowering and inspiration that 
'come before' our human acts and give them 
effect. Thus, at every step in religious edu- 
cation God himself— the present, living God, 
the Word that enlighteneth every man coming 
into the world — is the supreme factor. 

24. The Divine It follows that parents 

Vocation of i . i i . 

Parents and ^^^ teachers are properly 

Teachers. instruments in the divine 

hand for playing upon the 
divinely constructed strings of human nature. 
Man as educator is not the complete source of 
his own activities. His desire to build up 
right character in the young is not an inven- 
tion, it is an inspiration. The same hand that 
impels the child through what we call the 
religious impulse impels the educator also to 
supply food for the growth of that impulse. 
And what a vocation is this of parents and 
teachers! In their hands as in no others lie 
the reins of the chariot of God. In the na- 
ture of things, the kingdom of God must 
grow chiefly by securing control of young 
life. The religious impulse must be fed and 
it must be led on to realise its full manhood 
through voluntary obedience to Christ. This 
is religious education. It controls the stream 



40 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

at its source. The broad river of humanity is 
what it is made to be in the home and in the 
school of whatever kind. Parents and teach- 
ers are making history; they are making or 
unmaking civilisation; they are promoting or 
holding back the triumph of God's kingdom 
upon the earth. They are doing this whether 
they will or no. The young life that touches 
their life is plastic. It takes the shape of that 
with which it comes into contact. Every par- 
ent, every teacher, and indeed every person 
who has any relation to young life has there- 
fore a divine vocation. He is set apart, 
chosen, to reveal God. This is true of irre- 
ligious as well as religious parents, of teach- 
ers in the week-day school as well as teachers 
in the Sunday school. Whoever is placed where 
he molds the life of a child or youth, however 
he came to be so placed, is bound to this serv- 
ice. 

25. Nature as a The educational reform 

Education. of the last century is char- 

acterised chiefly by two 
marks : On the one hand, it gives a new rec- 
ognition to natural law in the educational 
process, and on the other hand it defines the 
end of education in social terms. The nature- 
side appears most prominently in the extraor- 



GOD, NATURE AND MAN IN EDUCATION 41 

dinary attention given to the child— his phys- 
ical and mental structure, his spontaneous 
impulses, the stages of his growth, and the 
relation of his development to the evolution 
of the human species. We have come to see 
that education is not imposed by us upon na- 
ture but is rather a voluntary carrying for- 
ward of a natural process. Every sensation 
that streams in upon the infant mind contrib- 
utes something to the formation of the per- 
sonality. The baby's spontaneous throwing 
about of arms and legs helps to develop the 
motor centers which constitute the physical 
basis of will and self-control. Play is a gen- 
uine school in which nature drills the pupil 
in every faculty. The whole contact of the 
child with nature is, in fact, educative. But 
even this is not half the story. For in the 
spontaneous reactions which the child makes 
to his environment we behold adaptive mental 
traits which he has inherited through 
his relation to the species, and the species 
through its place in the general evolution of 
living beings. The past of the race speaks in 
the child, and the past of life upon this 
planet speaks in the race. The social instinct, 
for example, which is one of the corner stones 
of all character-building, is natural in the 



42 EDLX'ATION IX RELIGION AND MORALS 

complete sense of the term nature, and it has 
a long human and pre-human history. All 
our deliberate efiPorts to educate can do no 
more than continue the work thus begun by 
nature. We do not bestow a mental consti- 
tution upon the child ; we merely feed, stimu- 
late, and direct what is already there. We 
may say, therefore, that education carries for- 
ward what nature has already begun.^ 

26. The Educative What then ? Shall we 
Presence of God .-, • ^ .^ , ^ i 

in Nature. think that, because educa- 

tion is natural, God is not a 
factor in it ? Eather, let us say that, just be- 
cause evolution has provided a basis upon 
which our spiritual building can be erected, 
just because the movement of life has been 
upward toward the capacity and the impulse 
of love toward God, therefore we discover God 

^ "Education is conscious or voluntary evolution." — 
Thomas Davidson: History of Education (New York, 
1901), page 1. Cf. Nicliolas Murray Butler: The 
Meaning of Education (New York, 1898), Lecture I, 
and the* following words from Bishop Spalding : "Life 
is the unfolding of a mysterious power, which in man 
rises to self-consciousness, and through self-conscious- 
ness to the knowledge of a world of truth and order 
and love, where action may no longer be left wholly 
to the sway of matter or to 'the impulse of instinct, 
but may and should be controlled by reason and con- 
Bclence. To further this process by deliberate and in- 
telligent effort is to educate. Hence education is man's 
conscious co-operation with the Infinite Being in pro- 
moting the development of life ; it is the bringing of 
life in its highest form to bear upon life, individual and 
social, that it may raise it to greater perfection, to ever- 
increasing potency." — J. L. Spalding : Means and Ends 
of Education (Chicago, 1901), page 72. 



GOD, NATURE AND MAN IN EDUCATION 43 

in evolution and conclude that the ultimate 
source of education as respects nature, thv. 
child, and the educator— all three— is He in 
whom "we live, and move, and have our be- 
ing. ' '^ This way of regarding nature is com- 
pleted in the universally received doctrine of 
the immanence, or abiding presence, of God. 
This means, among other things, that ma- 
terial atoms are forms of divine activity ; that 
the laws of nature are simply the orderly 
methods of his rational will, which is in com- 
plete control of itself ; that evolution does not 
suffer any break when man, a self conscious 
and moral being, appears, because the whole 
of evolution is, in reality, a process of realis- 
ing a moral purpose ; that the correlation of 
mind and brain is just the phenomenal aspect 
of the real correlation of our mind with the 
divine power which sustains us; that the de- 
velopment, physiological and mental, that 
man receives through nature is part of an 
all-inclusive educational plan, and that, in 
our work as educators, God is working 
through our reason and will to carry forward 
the universal plan. 



^ See Newman Smyth : Through Science to Faith 
(New Yorlj, 1902) ; also Henry Drummond : The Ascent 
of Man (New Yorl£, 1898). 



CHAPTER IV 

THE CHRISTIAN VIEW OF CHILDHOOD 

27. Jesus and The inclusion of nature 

Little Children. -1.1 • -j. 1 tp c 

and the spiritual liie 01 
man in a single conception, as was done in 
the last chapter, brings us face to face with 
the Christian conceptions of the natural and 
the spiritual man, of depravity and grace, as 
far as these have a bearing upon childhood. 
We must, in short, go forward from the stand- 
point of religious education in a merely gen- 
eral sense to that of specifically Christian edu- 
cation. 

The central idea, the controlling principle 
of such education, must be sought in the life 
and teachings of Jesus. Here we are at once 
struck by a distinctive attitude and a distinc- 
tive utterance. It is clear that Jesus was 
fond of children ; he had the same tender feel- 
ing, the same helief in them that every nor- 
mal man among us experiences who comes 
close to the life of a little one. To Jesus child- 
life is not a dark picture, but a bright one. It 
does not depress his soul with a sense of evil 
or of danger, but lifts it up with a feeling of 
the nearness of divine things. We should find 
this in the picture of Jesus taking little chil- 



THE CHRISTIAN VIEW OF CHILDHOOD 45 



dren into his arms, even if he had left no re- 
corded word on the subject. But he expressly 
declares this to be his view. He took little 
children into his arms and "blessed them." 
The word here rendered "blessed" has the 
same root as our term "eulogy," and in this 
particular passage the simple root is strength- 
ened by a special prefix that denotes intensity. 
The root-meaning, "to speak well of," has ac- 
quired various derivative meanings, but it is 
a word that could not be used of a person or a 
thing that one did not approve of. 

28. Jesus' Teach- This of itself would be 

mg Concerning u ^ i ^ i ^i, 

the Child and the enough to let US know the 

Kingdom. mind of the Master concern- 

ing childhood. But the 
Master put his thought into still more specific 
form. "For of such," he said, "is the king- 
dom of God. ' ' The ' ' of such " is a possessive ; 
it is the same form as the "theirs" in the first 
Beatitude, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, 
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. ' ' That is, 
Jesus asserts that the kingdom of God be- 
longs to little children, it is theirs. The state- 
ment is not that the kingdom belongs to those 
who are like little children— that is a sepa- 
rate statement which refers to adults. 
Adults who are at enmity with God must enter 



4P, EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

the kingdom by humbling themselves and be- 
coming like little children, but to little chil- 
dren themselves the kingdom already be- 
longs. It may, perhaps, be significant that 
this passage occurs in the oldest of the Gos- 
pels, that of Mark. Additional weight is 
given to it by Jesus' repeated references to 
childhood as an illustration of the qualities 
necessary for entering the kingdom and for 
attaining greatness therein. 
29. Jesus' View A distinction is made. 

Spiritual then, between the status of 

Development. little children and that of 

mature and wilful sinners. 
The latter must repent and be converted, but 
children, already possessing the life-principle 
of the kingdom, require spiritual development. 
Jesus ' recorded words do not, it is true, say 
all this, yet all of it is implied in the circum- 
stances under which he spoke the words that 
have come down to us. He was speaking to a 
Jewish audience. Now, as soon as we realise 
the sense that a Jewish hearer must have 
found in his words, they become illuminated 
for us. Every Jewish child, by virtue of his 
blood, was regarded as under the covenant 
made with Abraham; he was already a mem- 
ber of the theocratic kingdom. In no sense 



THE CHRISTIAN VIEW OF CHILDHOOD 47 

was he an outsider who had to be brought in. 
According to the law he was simply to be 
taught from infancy the story of Israel, a 
story in which he belonged from birth, and 
when he reached the age of thirteen he be- 
came, as a matter of course, subject to the 
whole law. This conception of childhood 
Jesus here adopts, spiritualises, and fills with 
his own good news of the kingdom, not of Is- 
rael, but of God. As the Jewish child was 
within the Abrahamic covenant by virtue of 
descent from Abraham, so all children are 
within the household of God by virtue of the 
divine grace which Jesus here announces. 
Normal child development, then, takes place 
entirely within the kingdom of grace. It con- 
sists of a gradual apprehension of the princi- 
ples of the kingdom, and increasing partici- 
pation in the activities and responsibilities 
thereof. The parables of the growth of the 
kingdom apply to the individual as well as to 
the world at large. In both spheres the law 
is "first the blade, then the ear, then the full 
corn in the ear." 

30. What should We shall see, after a 

Christians Expect while, that the assumption 

Children? ^^ responsibility by the 

Jewish child at the age of 



48 EDUCATION IN UELIGION AND MORALS 

thirteen is a normal and typical fact. A tran- 
sition more or less rapid, more or less pro- 
found, is to be looked for in the early and 
middle years of adolescence. But children 
should be expected to remain within the king- 
dom from infancy, so that the adolescent tran- 
sition, when it comes, may be a step, not into 
the Christian life, but within the Christian 
life. Many children of Christian parents do, 
as a matter of fact, reach Christian manhood 
in this way. Taught from the start to count 
themselves children of God, from stage to 
stage of their growth they exercise a faith that 
is proportioned to their powers. These rep- 
resent the normal development of a child 
under Christian influences. The fact that 
many children who are brought up in Chris- 
tian homes go away from God does not indi- 
'jate that Jesus was in error in his view of the 
child and his development. He knew that 
tares may spring up in any wheat field, and 
that in the child as well as in the adult the 
kingdom wages a contest with evil. But who 
shall say how much of this falling away is due 
to a general failure on the part of the church 
to apprehend Jesus' plan of the kingdom? 
Many Christian parents assume that their chil- 
dren are aliens or outsiders who must wait to 



THE CHRISTIAN VIEW OP CHILDHOOD 49 

be brought in when they grow older. Many 
other parents who believe in childhood re- 
ligion nevertheless neglect to teach their chil- 
dren unequivocally that they are already chil- 
dren of God. The present alarming falling 
away of the children of the church is just 
what should be expected under present condi- 
tions. 

31. The true Idea One great hindrance to 
of Christian ^, „ ,, , , 

Nurture has been the tull acceptance and 

Obscured by the practice of Jesus' principle 
Doctrine of • , i p -, • 

Depravity. IS to be lound m a misun- 

derstanding of the facts 
that underlie the doctrine of natural deprav- 
ity. That there are facts back of this doc- 
trine must be obvious to any sober observer 
of life, whether that of the race or that of the 
individual, that of the adult or that of the 
child. In every one of us the good has a 
struggle against evil; in every one of us the 
good is so modified by evil that ideal charac- 
ter is never quite attained. Before a child can 
form a moral judgment he displays tenden- 
cies Avhich, if they develop without check, will 
issue in a bad character. Nevertheless, the 
doctrine of total depravity in its unrelieved 
form (a form which it no longer bears) con- 
tradicts the whole idea of religious education. 



50 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

For it says that there is nothing in the child 
that is worth bringing out, that development 
can do nothing for him, that he must wait for 
something to happen to him before he can so 
much as begin to be religious. The only con- 
ceivable training for a being in this condition 
would be external and chiefly negative. Fear 
might be employed to prevent outbreaks, and 
habits of external conformity to religious in- 
stitutions might be formed. But the person- 
ality would remain undeveloped, uneducated. 
This would be carpentry, an external shaping 
of materials, not education, which is the inner 
development of a self. 

There is no way to educate a dead soul. 
Life, development, education — this is the as- 
cending series of conceptions. Before there is 
education there must be life, a life that con- 
tains within itself a law of development. We 
shall soon see how theology has largely over- 
come the theoretical ditficulties that it created 
for itself in the doctrine of total depravity. 
But we have not yet recovered from the prac- 
tical difficulties that it entailed upon the laity. 
We still suffer from the inertia of the older 
view. For even yet we scarcely think of the 
child, in our habitual thought, as being spirit- 



THE CIIRiSTlAN VIEW OF CHILDHOOD 51 



ually alive. Perhaps we do not distinctly re- 
gard him as completely dead, but we certainly 
have not acquired the habit of seeing the life 
that is there or of feeding it in any adequate 
manner, 

32. Illustrations The pressing necessity of 

of this . , . , 

Obscuration. securing a positive and 

sharply defined point of 
view with reference to the child makes 
it advisable that we should look with 
wide open eyes at the immediate past of 
our present neglect. The past is not so much 
one of neglect as of misunderstanding and 
mishandling of the child. The lot of the child 
in colonial days is indicated in the following 
passage from the diary of Cotton Mather: 
"I took my little daughter Katy [a tot of 
four yearsl into my Study and then I told my 
child I am to dye Shortly and shee must, 
when I am Dead, remember Everything I now 
said unto her. I sett before her the sinful 
Condition of her Nature, and I charged her 
to pray in Secret Places every day. That 
God for the sake of Jesus Christ would give 
her a new Heart. I gave her to understand 
that when I am taken from her she must look 
to meet with more humbling Afflictions than 



52 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

she does now she has a Tender Father to pro- 
vide for her. "1 

In 1831 the American Tract Society pub- 
lished a little book (abridged from an earlier 
one printed in Great Britain) called Persua- 
sives to Early Piety, by J. G. Pike. What 
motives to piety were set before the young in 
1831 ? First and foremost is fear. In the 
Introductory Address to the Young Reader 
the author exclaims: "Of how little conse- 
quence is this poor, transient world to you, 
who have an eternal world to mind ! " Of the 
value of religion he says: "The living neg- 
lect it, but the dead know its value. Every 
'saint in heaven feels the worth of religion 
through partaking of the blessings to which it 
leads; and every soul in hell knows its value 
by its want." He goes on to say that the 
occasion for religion is our depravity. "The 
sinfulness of your nature, my young friend, 
is not partial ; it is not confined to some of 
your powers or faculties; but, like a mortal 
poison, spreads through and pollutes the 
whole. . . So far are our best actions, in 
our natural state, from helping us, that even 
they are polluted and loathsome." The Per- 
suasives ends, naturally, with a realistic de- 

» Alice Morse Earle : Child Life in Colonial Days 
(New Yorl£, 1899), page 236. 



THE CHRISTIAN VIEW OF CHILDHOOD 53 



scription of the torments of literal hell fire. 
In song, if anywhere, the heart of Jesus 
should find expression, yet in a collection of 
"Hymns for Sunday Schools, Youth and 
Children"^ published as late as 1852, the child 
is made to sing from the standpoint of human 
ruin and fear. Compare the following child's 
hymn, for example, with the words of Jesus 
concerning childhood : 

"There is beyond the sky 

A heaven of joy and love ; 
And holy children, when they die, 

Go to that world above. 

"There is a dreadful hell, 

And everlasting pains ; 
There sinners must with devils dwell, 

In darkness, fire, and chains. 

"Can such a child as I 

Escape this awful end? 
And may I hope, whene'er I die, 

I shall to heaven ascend? 

"Then will I read and pray. 

While I have life and breath ; 
Lest I should be cut off to-day. 

And sent t' eternal death." 

33. The Doctrinal The difficulty for educa- 
Difficulty has -• -i . 4. ^ j.i, 

been Overcome. tion that grows out of the 

doctrine of depravity is 
practically overcome in some churches through 
the countervailing doctrine of baptismal re- 
generation. This provides for spiritual life in 
all baptised infants and makes genuine Chris- 

^ New York, Carlton & Phillips, 1852. I have made 
further citations from this interesting collection in The 
Religion of a Mature Mind (Chicago, 1902), pages 
314 f. 



54 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 



tian nurture possible. In other churches the 
difficulty had to be met by a new adjustment 
of the notions of sin and grace, and this ad- 
justment has actually been made. We owe it, 
in large measure, to Horace Bushnell who, 
just before the publication of the hymn just 
quoted, issued his book on Christian Nurture 
(1847). He maintained that a positive re- 
ligious life does not need to wait for the crisis 
of conversion, but that, under the pervasive 
influence of the Christian family, "the child 
should grow up a Christian, and never know 
himself as being otherwise." To the objec- 
tion that this theory ignores the child's de- 
pravity and the necessity for regeneration, 
Bushnell replied in substance that wherever 
sin can abound there grace can much more 
abound. That is, he overcame the difficulty, 
not by denying depravity, but by exalting 
the grace of God. The unquestionably good 
qualties shown by little children he inter- 
preted as signs of the divine in-working. 
With this in-working parents and teachers 
are to co-operate so that development of the 
divinely implanted germ may be continuous. 
A similar position was taken a little later 
by F. G. Hibbard, who approached the prob- 
lem from Arminian rather than Puritan pre- 



THE CHRISTIAN VIEW OF CHILDHOOD 55 

suppositions.^ He maintained that children 
—all children — are in a state of favor 
with God, who imparts to them a genuine 
spiritual quickening or principle of life. 
This view he supports at length from Scrip- 
ture and from the current belief of his 
own communion that all chidren who 
die in infancy are saved. If dying infants 
are saved, it must be through divine grace, 
but why should such grace be given to those 
who die, but withheld from those who need it 
for living? This view requires a change in 
the ordinary notion of conversion, for now 
the real question becomes— not. Will this 
child ever be converted to God ? but— Will he 
ever be converted away from God ? One can- 
not become a member of the kingdom of sin 
except through one's own evil choice to sur- 
render one's heavenly citizenship. 

Through such writings and other influences 
there has come to prevail somewhat generally 
the view that the Holy Spirit is continually 
present in the heart of man from the begin- 
ning of consciousness, and that thus a genuine 
spiritual life is imparted, in germinal form, to 

1 F. G. Hlbbard : The Religion of Childhood ; or, 
Children in their Relation to Native Depravity, to the 
Atonement, to the Family, and to the Church (Cincin- 
nati : Foe & Hitchcock:, 1866). 



56 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

all who do not positively refuse to accept it. 
The existence of evil tendencies is not thereby 
denied, but such tendencies are believed to 
find a continuous corrective in divine help as 
far as this is not rejected or neglected. Neither 
is the need of individual decision lessened un- 
der this view, for normal growth takes place 
only through co-operation of the individual 
will with the inner divine impulsion. 

34. Good and Evil This change in the doc- 
Impulses in . . 1 ■ J. £ • 1, „ 

Children. trmal pomt 01 view has 

been accompanied by more 
thorough observation of the actual impulses 
of children. The general result thereof is to 
confirm the universal Christian belief that, 
in some sense, the natural man is at enmity 
with the spiritual man. At the same time it 
shows that the natural man is, in some sense, 
already spiritual. The impulses of children 
are partly wholesome, partly unwholesome. 

It is clear that children's "lies," which 
were formerly regarded as clear evidence of 
childhood depravity, have been misunder- 
stood. In order to recognise the difference 
between fact and fancy, considerable expe- 
rience is necessary. Even grown persons 
commonly confuse the two. How much more 
a little child, who has everything yet to 



THE CHRISTIAX VIEW OF CHILDHOOD 57 

learn ! Moreover, even when this distinction 
is realised, . the child may not understand 
the moral quality of wilful deception. He 
deceives in self-defense just as he raises his 
arm to ward off a blow. He has still to learn 
the social effect of a lie. In short, when we 
look at children's falsehoods from the stand- 
point of the child himself we discover no such 
inbred evil as was once assumed to be there. 

Similarly the cruelty that is attributed 
to little children is probably not cruelty at 
all. For the young child has had no expe- 
rience that enables him to interpret the 
signs of suffering in animals or in men. 
He does not delight in inflicting pain upon 
others, for he does not realise that he is 
inflicting pain. He has, however, great curi- 
osity to see what will happen, and he de- 
lights to feel his own power through witness- 
ing the effects of it in the reactions of living 
things. At these points, then, childhood's im- 
pulses are not as bad as they have been repre- 
sented to be. 

At certain other points, however, the young 
child displays impulses that are little above 
those of the brutes. Every infant, to begin 
with, is an almost complete egoist. His greed 
is boundless ; he is subject to unregulated an- 



58 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

ger and envy ; he resists all the restraints that 
are essential to social existence. On the other 
hand, germs of positive good, such as sym- 
pathy, kindness, generosity, affection, spring 
up very early and in advance of instruction 
and moral reflection.^ 

35. How Interpret Thus good and evil im- 

these Impulses? . i -i i 

pulses mix in every child. 

Yet not "good and evil" in any complete 
sense. We must, in fact, make still another 
effort to see the facts from the point of view 
of childhood itself. Greed and anger that 
would be reprehensible in us may bear no 
such character in an infant. "No such char- 
acter^'; that is precisely it. Character is a 
confirmed habit of moral choice, and this the 
young child has not yet attained. It would 
be well, therefore, to drop both adjectives, 
"evil" and "good," in our description of 
childhood, at least of young childhood, or 
else learn to give them an unwonted meaning. 
The child has not a character as yet; he is 
merely a candidate for character. He is 
neither good nor bad ; he is merely becoming 
one or the other. Some of his impulses, if 
they grow unchecked and unregulated^ will 

' On this whole subject, see James Sully : Studies of 
Childhood (New York, 1900), Chapter VII. 



THE CHRISTIAN VIEW OF CHILDHOOD 59 

issue in bad character ; others, if they grow 
symmetrically, will result in good character. 
That is the whole story. 

No, not quite the whole. For the two sets 
of impulses do not stand on quite the same 
footing. One set relates the child to the 
lower animals, the other to distinctly human 
life. The law of evolution has for the first 
time enabled us to see such facts in their true 
perspective. The unlovely impulses are traces 
of lower orders of life out of which man has 
evolved, and out of which each individual 
child develops. The individual begins life on 
the animal plane, somewhat as the human 
race did, and he has to attain through devel- 
opment the distinctly human traits. But it 
is natural that he should attain them} The 
law of development is written in his members. 
The lower tendencies are, indeed, natural in 
the sense that they spontaneously appear and 
actually compete with the higher; but in a 
profounder sense of "natural" the higher 
tendencies are the natural ones, in the sense, 
namely, that they represent what both the 

' Comenius, one of the earliest founders of natural 
method, says : "It is more natural and, through the 
grace of the Holy Spirit, easier for a man to become 
wise, honest, and righteous, than for his progress to be 
hindered by incidental depravity." — .Tohn Amos Comenius : 
The Great Didactic, Translated by W, M, Keatlnge (Lon- 
don, 1896), p. 203, 



60 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

child and the race are becoming. In order 
to live his own life the child must control 
and regulate his impulses. He not only 
must but also does discriminate between 
them, and generally he identifies himself 
with at least a part of the general group 
of impulses that we call wholesome. Fin- 
ally, as will be shown in the proper place, 
even the impulses that we call lower are ca- 
pable of being transformed into instruments 
for the realisation of the higher nature. 
Greed, anger, envy, all represent spontaneous 
energy that can be directed into either useful 
or harmful channels. The work of education, 
accordingly, is to furnish nutriment for the 
higher tendencies and direction for the lower. 

36. A Positive We are now ready to see 

Religious Nature , ,, £ . i. 

is Presupposed ^ow these facts bear upon 

in Religious religious education. First, 

Education. .^-^•^p -J.- 

the denial or a positive re- 
ligious nature to man through the doctrine of 
total depravity tended to paralyse religious 
education, (a) It denied that there was any- 
thing to develop. (6) It judged the child 
from the standpoint of the adult, and there- 
fore could not secure any natural leverage in 
the child-mind, (c) It employed repression, 
instead of securing expression, with the 



THE CHRISTIAN VIEW OF CHILDHOOD 61 

result of distorting the personality, and 
often of producing opposition to religion. 
(d) Taking maturity as a standard, it encour- 
aged religious precocity, which is clearly un- 
wholesome, (e) It placed undue emphasis 
upon conversion experiences, and this led, on 
the one hand, to emotional excesses, and on 
the other to unnatural (and unspiritual) 
straining after subjective states. 

Education in religion must start out, then, 
with the assumption that the child has a posi- 
tive religious nature. This does not imply 
any of the following notions: (a) That the 
child is 'all right' as he is. Even a mature 
Christian is not 'all right.' Both must strug- 
gle to maintain and to increase the life that 
is within them, and both may stumble without 
forfeiting that life. (&) That the child can 
grow up properly by a merely 'natural' pro- 
cess, without divine help. Even a mature 
Christian needs daily help, (c) That the life 
principle in the child can take care of itself 
without our help. On the contrary, just be- 
cause a positive religious nature is here, defi- 
nite spiritual food must be supplied, (d) 
That the child has any definitely conscious re- 
ligious experience or sense of God. He is 
merely becoming conscious of spiritual things. 



62 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

To speak positively, the possession of a 
positive religious nature implies three things : 
(a) That the child has more than a passive 
capacity for spiritual things. Just as animals 
go forth in search of food, so a positive spirit- 
ual nature goes forth spontaneously in search 
of God. (&) That nothing short of union 
with God can really bring a human being to 
himself. The absurdity of a miser's life is 
that a heart that hungers for God feeds on 
gold. The tragedy in the life of every volup- 
tuary is that a few drops of pleasure are of- 
fered to slake a thirst for eternal things. In 
fact, in all our strivings for wealth, pleasure, 
honor, culture, we are really seeking to satisfy 
a divine craving. The real meaning of every- 
thing with which we have to do is God, who is 
in all and through all. Failing to find him, we 
lose even our self, (c) That the successive 
phases in the growth of the child personality 
may be, and normally are, so many phases of 
a growing consciousness of the divine mean- 
ing of life. Both the idea of God and the 
religious regulation of life can develop from 
crude beginnings, just as the song of a lark 
comes out of a songless egg. In Part II we 
shall have to show how the religious demand 



THE CHRISTIAN VIEW OP CHILDHOOD 63 

of the child utters itself, and how the religious 
nature grows. 

37. Resulting "We saw in the last chap- 

Conception of . , .^ . -1 1 i • 

Christian ter how it IS possible to m- 

Education. elude God, nature, and man 

in a unitary conception of 
religious education. At last, after a long dis- 
cussion, we are ready to include Christ in 
the same conception, and thus rise to the 
thought of distinctively Christian education. 
The view of God in his world that was sug- 
gested in the last chapter is the Christian 
view. The Christian view of the child fits 
therein perfectly. In the spontaneous life of 
the young child, all free from calculation and 
deliberate choice, we see the human life of 
love and reverence emerging out of nature. 
Here the meaning of nature begins to show 
itself; here creation rises from its valleys and 
plains toward the mountain summits. God 
himself makes the heart hungry. But where 
shall nutriment adequate to this creature's 
demands be found? Here is appetite of a 
new and surprising sort. What is man? He 
has been made only a little lower than God. 
He has been crowned with glory and honor, 
and all things have been put under his feet. 
Yet even that is not enough for him. He will 



64 EDUCATION IN ItELIGION AND MORALS 

have conscious union with the one being who 
is higher than himself. Now, Christianity 
says that in Christ God gives himself to men 
as their light, their bread, their life. Chil- 
dren, all of us, apprehending reality first of 
all through sensuous media, we receive God 
through his historic manifestation in that 
which we can see with our eyes, and that 
which we can handle with our hands of the 
Word of Life. In Christ God responds to our 
hunger. Feeding upon him we grow in like- 
ness to God ; that is, we develop, we are edu- 
cated. Christian education consists, then, in 
so presenting Christ to immature souls that 
they shall be by him enlightened, inspired, 
and fed according to their gradually increas- 
ing capacity, and thus made to grow continu- 
ously within the courts of the Lord's house. 



APPENDIX TO CHAPTER IV 

EDUCATION, DEPRAVITY, AND THE BIRTH PROM 
ABOVE 

I believe that one of the most serious ob- 
stacles to the proper training of children is to 
be found in the inertia of outgrown or mis- 
understood theological conceptions. One of 
the most misunderstood of these conceptions 
is that of the "new birth" as it is related to 
the normal development of the religious con- 
sciousness. Education and regeneration have 
been habitually contrasted with each other, as 
though Jesus, in his declaration to Nicodemus, 
had in mind suddenness or any other tem- 
poral conception rather than the qualitative 
unlikeness of two kinds of life and the divine 
source of one of them. It would be well to 
go back to the primary meaning of the scrip- 
tural words by speaking of the "birth from 
above" rather than the "new" birth. The 
life from above is a kind of life, and its source 
is God. There is here no antithesis to educa- 
tion or development. A mature Christian is 
expected to grow in the divine life ; why may 
not a child grow in it also ? Why may not the 



66 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

life be there from the start? Education does 
not bestow it upon the child, or enable him 
to create it for himself; it merely helps him, 
as the usual means of grace help adult Chris- 
tians, to work out what God works within. A 
child who thus grows up has the life from 
above as truly as a converted rebel. Receiv- 
ing as he goes along "the true light, even the 
light that lighteth every man as he cometh 
into the world," he has a right to be called a 
child of God. (C/. George A. Coe: The Re- 
ligion of a Mature Mind (Chicago, 1902), 
Chapter VII: "The Right to be Called a 
Child of God"). 

That the present theological standpoint 
of leading Christian denominations fur- 
nishes, in nearly every case, an adequate 
theoretical basis for Christian education is 
reasonably clear from a survey of our pres- 
ent situation. The Presbyterian General 
Assembly has declared that all children who 
die in infancy are saved. Here it is proper to 
apply the remark of Hibbard already referred 
to (see page 54). Cf. Henry VanDyke: God 
and Little Children (New York, 1890). A 
well known Presbyterian clergyman, in re- 
sponse to a question, writes to me as follows: 
"The Presbyterian doctrine concerning the 



EDUCATION AND THE BIRTH FROM ABOVE 67 

relation of young children to God is this: 
That by original nature, in their first state, 
they are in a state of deficiency, needing the 
touch of divine grace with regenerative power 
before they are made the subjects of salva- 
tion. . . This touch of divine grace or 
regenerative presence in the child life may 
come at birth, or, as I believe and I think 
others do, may come before birth or quickly 
after. It is a point, of course, upon which 
there can be no knowledge, but the point is 
that the child in its infant days becomes the 
subject of regeneration, and is never really 
alienated from God, but from birth is his 
child and may and should grow up into a 
simple, normal, filial relation. ' ' Accordingly, 
"in the belief of our church young people are 
born members of the church." 

A representative Congregationalist makes a 
similar answer. After making allowance for 
difl'erences between congregations, he says: 
"The general faith is that all young children 
are, even though unconsciously, the children 
of God, and in the normal development of the 
child's soul its relation changes only as the 
relation of the child changes to the external 
world." 

The Methodist position, which is based upon 



68 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

a tendency to magnify the free grace of God, 
is the same. The emphasis which the Wes- 
leyan movement has always placed upon con- 
version has undoubtedly brought about a 
somewhat general expectation that even chil- 
dren who have enjoyed Christian training 
will pass through a crisis of repentance and 
conversion. Yet a long succession of the lead- 
ing authorities of Wesleyanism, of whom 
Hibbard is an example, has taken the position 
that a child may grow to maturity entirely 
within the kingdom of God. John Wesley, 
Fletcher, Watson, Adam Clarke, Whedon, 
have all asserted it. See article on "Wesley 
and other Methodist Fathers on Childhood 
Religion," by C. W. Rishell in Methodist Re- 
view, September-October, 1902; also R. J. 
Cooke: Christianity and Childhood (New 
York, 1891), and article by J. A. Story on 
"The Religion of Childhood" in Methodist 
Review, July- August, 1900. 

Of thirty-four candidates for the ministry 
of the English Wesleyan church who were re- 
cently called upon to relate their religious 
experience, considerably less than half, ac- 
cording to a report in the Methodist Recorder 
for August 6, 1903, mentioned any definite 
time or place of conversion, while many dis- 



EDUCATION AND THE BIRTH FROM ABOVE 69 

tinetly testified that their religious life had 
been a gradual growth from childhood. 

A representative Baptist clergyman says on 
the same point: "It is the general belief that 
young children are God's children, and will 
be saved if they die in that early stage ; that 
they inherit evil tendencies which are sure to 
manifest themselves as they develop, and these 
tendencies, consented to and intensified by the 
personal will, are so radical and strong that 
they call for what the Scripture designates 
"regeneration," a spiritual crisis wrought by 
the Spirit of God. This crisis may be accord- 
ing to age, temperament and previous moral 
conduct, sudden and marked or almost imper- 
ceptible, like the dawn of day. In a normal 
life there comes a time of decision, when the 
soul yields to God or pulls away; the latter 
act makes the accountable child a wayward 
child, a sinner condemned. ' ' 



CHAPTER V 

THE CHARACTERISTICS OP MODERN EDUCATION 

38. Three Con- The characteristics of 

trasts between , j .• i. 

Medieval and modern education may be 

Modern studied from either of two 

Education. • . <» • -jtt 

points of View. We may 
observe the school itself— the teaching force, 
the controlling bodies, the material of instruc- 
tion, the relation of the curriculum to life — or 
we may note the movement of educational 
theory in the works of writers on this subject. 
In the present section the former method will 
be used. If we compare mediaeval with 
modern schools, three contrasts will strike us 
at once. First, medigeval teachers were prac- 
tically all clergymen or other church func- 
tionaries, while the teaching force of modern 
schools is drawn chiefly from the laity. SeC' 
ond, the control of mediaeval schools was vest- 
ed in the church, while that of modern schools 
is vested chiefly in the state. Third, the point 
of view of the school has changed from that 
of preparation for personal salvation through 
believing dogmas, authoritatively handed 
down by the church to that of preparation 



CHARACTERISTICS OF MODERN EDUCATION 71 

for the common life, particularly the life of 
society, by the acquisition of so-called secular 
knowledge. 

At first sight the contrast here seems to be 
very sharp. The mediaBval school had in view 
the eternal salvation of the soul; the modern 
school, the living of our temporal life. The 
mediaeval school was "scholastic," the mod- 
ern is "scientific." Scholasticism means the 
carrying' on of all studies, all intellectual 
work, under the assumption that beliefs for- 
mulated by the church have final authority, 
so that they may not be inquired into in the 
sense of being tested. On the other hand, the 
scientific spirit is that of free inquiry. It 
recognises no authority for the inquiring mind 
except that of fact and of reasoned truth. It 
assumes the right to test all things and hold 
fast only that which stands the test. Its chief 
concern is not to maintain what is already 
accepted as true, but rather to extend the 
bounds of certain knowledge. The function 
of discovering new knowledge pertains, of 
course, to no educational institution below 
the university, but the spirit of science per- 
meates modern schools of all grades.* 

1 The term science is used in English in two or more 
senses. In the narrower sense it means the natural and 
physical sciences ; in the broader sense it signifies all 



72 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

39. Apparent These three contrasts 

Conflict between , i. j. • i t j^i 

iviodern show what IS meant by the 

Education and statement that the modern 

^ '^'°"' school is "secular," while 

the mediaeval school was religious. At first 
sight, the "secularisation" of the schools ap- 
pears to involve a conflict with religion. For, 
while religion demands submission, the spirit 
of modern education encourages individual 
judgment. The church asserts that this or 
that is true, basing its assertion upon divine 
revelation ; the spirit of the school authorises 
each man to inquire for himself whether it 
is true or not. Religion talks of unseen reali- 
ties, while modern education turns attention 
more and more to things that can be seen and 
handled. Religion makes God the first and 
supreme interest, but the "secular" school 
avoids speaking of God, and leaves to outside 
or incidental agencies the chief, and possibly 
the only, development that the child's reli- 
gious nature receives. 

knowledge that is based upon the scientific method, viz., 
observation and analysis. "The scientific spirit" has 
reference solely to the method of study, that is, the 
method which bases conclusions on observed facts and 
just reasonings therefrom rather than upon authority, 
speculation, argument, etc. This commonplace remark 
is made here because popular religious discussions fre- 
quently use the terms science and scientific as though 
they referred simply to the habitual points of view or 
characteristic methods o£ the physical and natural 
BCiences. 



CHARACTERISTICS OF MODERN EDUCATION 73 

It is therefore of the highest importance 
to inquire how much of real conflict there 
is here. Is the modern school either a rival 
or an opponent of religion? In principle, 
as we shall see, it is not, but in its 
practical working at some times and in 
some places it may and probably does hinder 
religion. In fact, purely secular education 
is a reaction from the one-sidedness of 
the medieval schools, and as a reaction it 
is itself one-sided. There may be adequate 
reason Avhy state schools should abstain from 
positive religious instruction, but in that case 
state schools cannot be regarded as more than 
a part of a proper educational system. Re- 
ligious education there must be, either within 
or without the state schools. If modern edu- 
cation has progressed faster in its secular than 
in its religious phases, the practical conclusion 
is not that what we have attained is false, but 
only that it is partial, and that the friends 
of religion have slept when they should have 
been at work. It is certainly true that the 
mediaeval church school and the modern secu- 
lar school are opposed to each other, and if 
these two were our only alternatives, our pres- 
ent situation would be alarming. But there 
is a third alternative, and that is for religious 



74 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

-T- ■ - — ■ 

education itself to become modern and hence 
capable of taking: its place alongside of and 
possibly also within the typical modern school. 
The practical measures for accomplishing this 
end will engage attention at a later point in 
our discussion. We must first of all make 
sure that there is no fundamental opposition 
of principle between religion and modern ed- 
ucation, as, for instance, in respect to author- 
ity. 

40. The Necessity The problem of authority 

of Authority in , ,i , r. J^ 

Education. S^GS to the roots of the 

whole idea of education. 
We simply cannot educate without teaching 
pupils to think for themselves. It is a founda- 
tion stone of the theory of teaching that the 
personality develops from Avithin by the free 
expression of what is there, not by being com- 
pressed into a mold, or by receiving addi- 
tions from without. MHiat place is left, then, 
for authority ? It is said that speculative an- 
archists, who deny altogether the right of 
men to govern men, sometimes carry their 
theory to the point of giving up all positive 
control of their own children. The theory is 
that the child will find out what is best for 
him through his own experience.^ Whether 

1 Cf. article on "Some Socialist and Anarchist Views 



CHARACTEIIISTICS OF MODERN EDUCATION 75 

such parents restrain the propensity of baby 
to put everything into his mouth is not re- 
lated, but it is certain that a child could not 
live without restraint. It is equally certain 
that education consists in exercising control 
of some sort. Even if it does not use external 
compulsion, it at least arranges the conditions 
so as to secure reactions of one kind rather 
than another, and so limits the range of pos- 
sible experience. It makes the child some- 
thing that he would not become if he were 
left to himself. It chooses for him before he 
is able to choose for himself. We do not wait 
for the child to decide for himself whether 
he will be clean, whether he will learn to read, 
whether he will become acquainted with 
Shakespeare, with history, and with science. 
In both the family and the school, society gen- 
uinely predetermines the future of its new 
members. Authority, consequently, lies at 
the very basis of education both secular and 
religious. 

41. Genera! What is the nature of 

Nature of this . , . ,, .^ „ -^ ., ,, 

Authority. this authority? Is it the 

arbitrary will of any per- 
son or group of persons? If it were that, it 

of Education" in the Educational Review, Volume XV, 
page 1. 



76 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

would be mere strength asserting itself against 
weakness. Parent and teacher are not the 
source of authority, but rather instruments 
of it. They themselves can be true educators 
only as they submit to the same authority 
that they exercise toward the child. Educa- 
tion, that is, has authority simply to make ef- 
fective in child-development the laws and 
ideals of life that the adult finds binding upon 
himself. This is as true of the state as it is 
of the citizen. The state is simply an ar- 
rangement whereby man makes effective the 
obligations and ideals which he recognises as 
binding. It is a part of his submission to au- 
thority. In a word, it is impossible for any 
individual to live to himself, and for any 
human organization to live to itself. Child 
and adult alike live in and through society, 
and society implies authority. But society 
also is under the authority of some ideal of 
social existence which leads the way of prog- 
ress. An arbitrary state is just as irrational 
as an arbitrary individual. It is un-human, 
as well as inhuman. The powers that be are 
all ordained as administrators of an authority 
which they do not originate. Keligion says 
that they are ordained of God, and ethics can- 
not say less than that they are ordained by 



CHARACTERISTICS OF MODERN EDUCATION 77 

the moral ideal. The authority that educa- 
tion assumes with respect to the child, then, 
is identical with the authority of morals and 
of religion. 

42. Authority in In point of authorita- 

Education. tiveness, then, religious ed- 

ucation stands upon the 
same level as education in general and, in- 
deed, human life in general. The real dis- 
pute, accordingly, is not between religion and 
modern education, but between two concep- 
tions of religious authority. All education 
employs authority. Nevertheless, modern ed- 
ucation humbles itself before the little child 
by submitting the whole of civilisation to the 
test of a fresh experience. How far the new 
personality can express itself in what we re- 
gard as the true and the good, and how far it 
must reject and revise and supplement what 
we offer, is always an open question. Now, 
the scholastic notion of authority declares 
that with respect to a certain set of proposi- 
tions called dogmas this question is not open. 
Everywhere else the general theory of educa- 
tion is accepted as true, but here the principle 
of development from within is no longer 
trusted. An external standard is immovably 
fixed, and if any individual finds that the life 



78 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

■within him— his conscience, his reason, his 
spiritual aspirations — cannot express itself in 
the forms of the dogma, scholastic authority 
must and does declare that this is a sign of a 
bad will. The scholastic notion of authority 
is not only opposed to the secular school ; it is 
in irreconcilable conflict with modern educa- 
tion itself. 

But there is another conception of spiritual 
authority which is perfectly harmonious with 
the educational principle of free self-expres- 
sion. It holds that the immanent God utters 
himself in the mind of everyone of us in the 
form of what we call our higher self. Cer- 
tainly there is that in the self which com- 
mands, judges, approves and rebukes all that 
is merely individual to me. My highest des- 
tiny can be nothing less or more than to be- 
come, in the highest possible degree, this bet- 
ter self which is germinal, yet commanding, 
in my consciousness. Here is divine author- 
ity, but it works within the individual as an 
impulse, not without him as compulsion. But 
there is also an external aspect to authority. 
For the best impulse does not grow without 
food ; the mind does nothing and knows noth- 
ing of itself without the concurrence of an ob- 
ject which stimulates it to activity. We find 



CHARACTERISTICS OF MODERN EDUCATION 79 

even ourselves only through our objective ex- 
periences. Hence anything in our present 
civilisation or in history that actually does 
call out our higher nature and enable it to be- 
come dominant in us acquires thereby author- 
ity over us. Yet such authority is never 
merely external ; it exists as authority for us 
only when it actually becomes the self-expres- 
sion of our higher nature.^ 

Authority in this sense is not only compati- 
ble with modern education; it is essential 
thereto. Education in its totality is nothing 
more than the process whereby ideal impulse 
and food for it, or inner and outer authority, 
come most effectively together. From this 
point of view the question as to the authority 
of religion in education resolves itself into 
these two question: Is there a natural reli- 
gious impulse, and is there in our civilisation 
anything that can satisfy it ?- 

* This is simply a general statement of the principle 
Involved In the common Christian belief that the spirit- 
ual content of the Scriptures cannot be discovered by 
us without the concurrent help of the Holy Spirit. That 
is, external authority is not actual authority as long as 
It stands alone. On the other hand, it is equally true 
that internal authority attains a definite character for 
us only through contact with external fact which in 
some measure corresponds to it. 

* A fuller exposition of this conception of authority In 
religion Is contained in George A. Coe : The Religion of 
a Mature Mind (Chicago, 1902), Chapter III — "Author- 
ity In Religion." See also L. Labertbonniere : The Ideal 
Teacher : or. The Catholic Notion of Authority in Educa- 
tion (Cathedral Library Association, 534-536 Amsterdam 



80 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

43. The Great Other characteristics of 

Educational ■, -i ^- -i. 

Reformers. modern education will ap- 

pear from a survey of the 
development of educational theory. The 
names of several educational reformers have 
direct significance for the problems of reli- 
gious education with which we are here con- 
cerned. A mere mention of them will intro- 
duce us to our ovv^n problems, and it may stim- 
ulate some readers to secure a personal ac- 
quaintance with some of the classical litera- 
ture of education.^ Since the beginning of 
the Reformation a remarkable transformation 
has taken place. Making no effort to trace the 
historic continuity of its various features, we 
may note, first, that Luther, applying the 
Reformation principle of the rights of the in- 
dividual, demanded compulsory education of 
a liberal kind for all children. The Moravian, 
Comenius (1502-1571; the Great Didactic, 
London, 1896), undertook to organise a com- 
plete course of instruction based upon the 

Avenue, New York City), and J. L. Hughes: Froebel's 
Educational Laws for all Teachers (New York, 1899), 
pages 24-28. 

^ Some of the most available secondary sources of In- 
formation on this topic are as follows : Thomas David- 
son : History of Education (New York, 1901) — a his- 
tory of both education and educational theories ; R. H. 
Quick: Educational Reformers (New York, 1890); 
J. P. Munroe: The Educational Ideal (Boston, 1896); 
J. G. Compayr^: History of Pedagogy (Boston, 1896). 



CHARACTERISTICS OF MODERN EDUCATION 81 

principle of drawing out the faculties in the 
natural order of their development, particu- 
larly by means of facts rather than books. In 
France Rousseau (1712-1778; Emile, New 
York, 1895), believing that the evils of life 
are due chiefly to the artificiality of civilisa- 
tion, demands a return to nature. This in- 
cludes natural education, that is, as Rousseau 
believes, development through the exercise of 
spontaneous impulses, both physical and 
mental. Rousseau carries this idea to mon- 
strous extremes, but the idea itself, in one 
form or another, has dominated the whole 
modern movement. Pestalozzi (1746-1827; 
Leonard and Gertrude, Boston, 1895), a 
Swiss, a man of prophetic gleams but poor 
organising ability, makes the school an ex- 
pression of love for men, and for all men. 
The end thereof is not mere learning, but also 
a trained character and wholesome affections. 
The method, based upon Rousseau, is chiefly 
that of familiarising the child with things 
rather than with words. In Germany Herbart 
(1776-1841; Science of Education, Boston, 
1896) defines the end of education as moral 
life; shows how interest is the true spring 
of study, and reveals the true nature of men- 
tal acquisition as the assimilation of new 



82 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

ideas by means of those already possessed. 
Froebel (1783-1852; The Education of Man, 
New York, 1888), another German, founds 
the kindergarten on the principles of Pesta- 
lozzi, which he also carries forward. Free de- 
velopment is now the central idea. Joyous 
activity takes the place of repression and ex- 
ternal imposition. Hence play and manual 
occupations receive recognition as educational 
processes of the highest importance. 

44. Summary of The educational move- 

the Modern i ,i i i . i 

Movement in J^ent thus barely suggested 

Education. ^yas embedded in the politi- 

cal movement that has given 
us the modern free state, and also in the intel- 
lectual movement that has given us modern 
science. The same aspiration that gave the 
franchise to the common people has endeav- 
ored to liberate the child also from unnatural 
burdens. The same intellectual awakening 
that has given us our unprecedented knowl- 
edge of nature has also destroyed the educa- 
tional monopoly that was once exercised by 
books, language, and the formal part of "po- 
lite learning. ' ' Bearing these general histori- 
cal tendencies in mind, we shall perhaps 
gather something of tie profound significance 
of the following summary of the modern 



CHARACTERISTICS OF MODERN ERUCATION S3 

movement in education. (1) From being an 
exclusively ecclesiastical affair, education has 
become also an affair of the state. (2) It 
has ceased to be the privilege of certain 
classes (clergy and nobility), and has become 
a right of all the people. (3) Its scope has 
widened from mere instruction to the training 
of the whole person— the will, the feelings, 
and the body, as well as the intellect. 
(4) Instruction itself has broadened so as to 
include the study of nature and of man along- 
side the study of merely literary and ab- 
stractly logical subjects. (5) The material 
employed has changed more and more from 
mere symbols, such as books, formulge, etc., 
toward things which the child can observe for 
himself. (6) The teacher's point of view 
has changed from that of the subject as he 
himself, a mature person, thinks it to that of 
the child and his natural, spontaneous 
methods of apprehension. (7) The notion of 
the process has changed from that of bestow- 
ing something upon a passive child to that 
of providing means whereby the child may 
actively and freely express himself. The child 
is to develop from within by his own activity. 
(8) Finally, in these later days, as we saw in 
the first chapter, education has passed beyond 



84 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

the individualism of both the mediEeval and 
the Reformation period, and is now recog- 
nised as a social process in aim as well as in 
origin. 

In the next chapter we shall ask what bear- 
ing certain of these views have upon religion 
and education therein. 



CHAPTER VI 

CONTRIBUTIONS OF MODERN EDUCATION TO 
RELIGION 

45. Why Modern In a broad sense Chris- 

Education has . •, • ,v o .-, 

Neglected the tianity IS the source 01 the 

Religious Factor, whole movement for the re- 
form of education. For 
modern schools are an offshoot from church 
schools, and parts of modern educational phil- 
osophy can be traced back to mediaeval times. 
The demand for popular education and for 
natural methods grew up within religion, and 
several of the great prophets of the modern 
reform — notably Pestalozzi and Froebel — 
have looked upon it as distinctly religious. 
Nevertheless, education became independent. 
It based itself upon psychology and child- 
study, not upon Bible, church, or creed. It 
has built up a set of principles of its own 
without stopping to ask what bearing they 
may have upon religion. We have to deal, 
accordingly, with two apparently unrelated 
theories, the religious and the pedagogical, 
and with two independent practical activities, 
those of the church and those of the school. 



86 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

This was, perhaps, inevitable. For religion, 
being the most conservative factor of civilisa- 
tion, has been relatively slow in assuming a 
final attitude toward the rapid changes of the 
modern world. That the whole of education 
should wait for official religion to assimilate 
the principles of modern life was scarcely to 
be expected. Church and state became sep- 
arated or else lost the close union of former 
days; modern democracy was born and grew 
to a giant; modern science gave us a new 
world. Here principles were at work that had 
to be incorporated into the training of the 
young. Progress took the line of least resist- 
ance. Leaving theological and ecclesiastical 
disputes to adjust themselves, the schools took 
into themselves the factors of life upon which 
there was least dispute. The reform occurred 
where reform was most practicable. 

46. Can Religion At last, however, this 

Principles of Unnatural division between 

Modern religion and education, 

Education? , . i i i • i 

church and school, is awak- 
ening a discontent that promises better things. 
Protestants and Catholics alike are beginning 
to realise that what still remains of religious 
education has been outstripped by the secular 
schools. Demand is now made not only for 



CONTRIBUTIONS OF MODERN EDUCATION 87 

more religious education, but also for better, 
and the general assumption is that one needed 
step is to adopt into religious training the 
principles of teaching that are recognised in 
the state schools. Some persons believe that 
the reform of religious education is already 
going too fast in this direction. They fear 
that secularisation of religion will follow the 
adoption of methods that characterise secular 
schools. Now, religious education must cer- 
tainly be religious in point of process as well 
as in point of purpose. No real advance can 
be made by grafting into religion anything 
that is not in its own nature religious. What 
kind of union, then, is this that is proposed ? 
Has the educational reform any contributions 
whatever to make to religion? The answer to 
this question can be found only by analysis 
of the great principles underlying modern ed- 
ucation. Let us undertake such analysis. 
47. Universal Universal education, to 

Education is a , . •,-, ,- n 

Christian Idea. ^egin with, IS essentially a 

Christian idea. For its 

foundation is the worth of man, a conception 

which Jesus has emphasised as no other 

teacher has done. In spite of the perversion 

of Christian institutions and ideas in behalf 

of oppression in many forms, original and es- 



88 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

sential Christianity has been the great eman- 
cipator, the great protest against all exploita- 
tion of human life. Rich and poor, learned 
and unlearned, master and servant, king and 
peasant, become, under Christian influences, 
simply so many children of God and brothers 
one of another. Jesus teaches that the hairs 
of our heads are all numbered, that a human 
life is of more value than the whole world, 
and that God places so high a value upon us 
as to give his only Son for our salvation. 
Here is basis broad enough for democracy and 
for universal education. 

48. So, also, is Modern education recog- 

Development ,i • i-c xi 

from Within; nises the inner lite as the es- 

sential life of a man. It pro- 
claims that things are not life, and that noth- 
ing can enlarge us that does not become a part 
of our inner being. The school is not to hang 
something upon the child, but to develop 
something within him. Here, surely, is sup- 
port for spiritual religion. "Out of the 
heart," said a wise man of ancient times, "are 
the issues of life." The Great Teacher re- 
affirmed this thought again and again. Not 
what comes to a man from the outside, but 
what comes up out of the inner being, is the 



CONTRIBUTIONS OF MODERN EDUCATION 89 

decisive fact of life. At this point, then, 

Christ and modern pedagogy are at one. 

49. Likewise "Ail- Modern education not 

'Round , , T. . 

Development"; O^ly P^ts emphasiS upon 

the inner life, but it also 
conceives that life broadly. Life is more than 
knowledge; it is also appreciation of what is 
lovely and of good report ; it is sympathy with 
other life ; it is righteousness of purpose. To 
teach is more than to train the intellect and 
fill it with information. It is to make men. 
The transformation in our schools from the 
idea of mere instruction to that of symmetri- 
cal development is not yet fully accom- 
plished, but in principle the victory has been 
won. This victory is a move in the direction 
of religion. For, though religion concerns 
the intellect, it is most of all a matter of the 
heart and the will. Jesus declared that he is 
come that we may have life, and that we may 
have it abundantly. There is a sense in which 
every true teacher could say this of himself, 
for he is to help his pupils, not only to know, 
but also to live. Whatever culture of the 
feelings and the will the school is able to im- 
part is so much preparation of the soil for the 
reception of religious impressions. 



80 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

50. And Active Though modern educa- 

Self- Expression. ^, , . ,i • 

tion emphasises the inner 

life, it demands that this life come to outward 
expression. "No impression without expres- 
sion" is its motto. It declares that a mental 
act is not complete until it has expressed itself 
by means of the motor apparatus, and hence 
that we do not really grasp an idea until we 
set it at work. Does not this remind us of the 
very words of Jesus when he said that one 
who hears his words without doing them is 
like a man who built his house on shifting 
sands, while he who both hears and does is 
like a man who built upon a rock? Entrance 
into the kingdom is accorded, not to those 
who say "Lord, Lord!" but to those who do 
God's will. In religion and in education alike 
the inner and the outer are properly indis- 
soluble; they are the concave and the convex 
sides of the same curve. Hence education, 
working in its own way, enforces the lesson 
of religion. This lesson is especially signifi- 
cant in this day of practical affairs; for the 
only kind of faith that is convincing to a 
modern man is the faith that shows itself in its 
good works, the faith that spiritualises con- 
duct, business, and all our human relations. 



CONTRIBUTIONS OF MODERN EDUCATION 91 

51. Christianity Another side of the same 

puts the Concrete • • , -,,.■, 

before the principle requires that the 

Abstract; sensible shall come before 

the rational, the concrete 
before the abstract, the reality before the sym- 
bol. The word, the rule, the theory, is not to 
be introduced until the pupil has something 
to express by means of it. Hence, education 
begins, though it does not end, with things of 
sense. The training of the senses and of the 
muscles, which has become so prominent in 
our schools, proceeds from no unspiritual 
view of life, but from the actual structure of 
our minds. In the manual-training class the 
child learns vastly more than mere material 
things. He learns arithmetic, the laws of na- 
ture, self-control; he cultivates attention, im- 
agination, character. A laboratory, or a 
landscape, or a mass of clay for modeling, if 
only such meanings be found therein, is fully 
as spiritual as a book. Modern education 
busies itself with objects that are visible and 
tangible because of what they reveal, and be- 
cause of their effect upon the inner life of the 
child or youth. Is not this principle a princi- 
ple of religion also ? What is the meaning of 
the central idea of Christianity, incarnation, 
unless it be that men come into relation with 



92 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

the invisible God through a visible person? 
"That which we have heard, that which we 
have seen with our eyes, that which we be- 
held, and our hands handled, concerning the 
Word of Life"— this preface of St. John's 
first letter would serve with equal appropri- 
ateness to introduce a fundamental concep- 
tion of modern education. When this prin- 
ciple has its perfect work in our schools, it 
will counteract two tendencies that are un- 
favorable to religion — ^the tendency to think 
■of it as abstract and speculative, and the 
opposite tendency to ignore the spiritual as- 
pects of the visible world. 

52. Offers Free- The educational principle 

dom through „ „ ,„ 

Obedience; of ^^^^ sell-expression IS 

equally harmonious with re- 
ligion. At first sight freedom may seem to 
clash with all authority, but the apparent con- 
flict disappears when we understand what 
pedagogy means by freedom. Freedom cer- 
tainly does not mean that the pupil is to do 
just as he likes; for what one likes may actu- 
ally repress and enslave. Unwholesome food 
may be liked, but it depresses the vital powers. 
Freedom is the active self-expression, not of 
incidental desires, but of the deeper demands 
of the nature. These deeper demands contin- 



CONTRIBUTIONS OP MODERN EDUCATION 93 

ually oppose our more superficial impulses, so 
that the attainment of freedom implies the 
learning of self-restraint and of obedience. 
Capricious indulgence of desire ends in slav- 
ery. We cannot be ourselves unless we train 
our vagrant impulses to bow before the deep- 
er and higher things of the spirit. Freedom 
does not exclude authority, then, but requires 
it. What pedagogy insists upon under the 
name of freedom is simply that the teacher 
shall utilise the deeper currents of life so as 
to help the child from within rather than in 
any merely external fashion. The deeper 
currents, as well as the superficial ones, will 
manifest themselves in spontaneous interests 
which it is the duty of the teacher to seize 
upon. Artificial leverage is to be shunned. 
A¥hatsoever is done for the child must include 
a spontaneous expression of the child. When, 
for example, restraint must be used, it should 
be so applied as promptly to transform itself 
into self-restraint. 

Here, once more, modern education pre- 
pares the way for religion; for religion is it- 
self a proclamation of liberty. Its promise is 
to release us from bondage to sins and fears 
and the pettiness of our merely individual de- 
sires. It releases us from the sense of being 



94 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

oppressed by the bigness of the world, and 
makes us realise that all things are ours, 
"whether things present or things to come, or 
life or death. But it grants us this liberty 
only through self-surrender, only through 
that losing of our life whereby we gain life. 
In other words, religion assumes that her com- 
mands are also the commands of our own 
deepest self. It is thus that the obedience 
that we render to her is our highest freedom. 
Education and religion are thus at one in 
teaching us freedom through obedience. 

53. And Trains Modem education is like- 

the Individual , . .^, ,. , 

for Society. Wise working with religion 

for the adjustment of the 
individual to society. The demand that every 
child shall have opportunity for education 
recognises the ultimate worth of the person. 
It is in direct line with Christianity, which 
looks down through wealth, position, nation- 
ality, social circumstance, to the individual 
heart. On the other hand, both education 
and religion recognise right relations to one's 
fellows as a necessary part of true life, 
Christianity sets before us the ideal of a 
divine society in which each citizen loves all 
the others as he loves himself. Something like 
this is coming to be recognised as the end of 



CONTRIBUTIONS OF MODERN EDUCATION 95 

education. No longer is it possible to look 
upon knowledge, power, intellectual and 
aesthetic culture, or anything else that is mere- 
ly individual, as the aim of the school. The 
school is to make men, and strong men; but 
men strong in regard for one another, strong 
in their loyalty to law, strong in the spirit of 
co-operation. 

54. Thus the These are the essential 

Basis of Modern , , • ,• r. n 

Education is characteristics 01 modern 

Christian; educational philosophy. 

Every one of them is not 
only reconcilable with religion, but actually 
included within the Christian view of life. 
We may therefore say that the modern educa- 
tional movement as a ivhole has consisted in 
the working out of certain pedagogical aspects 
of Christian belief. It has by no means ap- 
preciated all the wealth of educational prin- 
ciple that is contained in Christianity, nor has 
it always kept itself free from un-Christian 
tendencies of the times. Educators have often 
been unconscious of their indebtedness to re- 
ligion; now and then one of them has been 
hostile to the church. Doubtless, too, the ad- 
ministration of education has improved less 
rapidly than educational theory. Yet, for all 
that, the educational movement of modern 



96 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

times has never been really independent of 
religion. It has builded better than it knew, 
for its inspiration has come from the highest 
source. As far as it goes, the school is essen- 
tially a creation of the religious spirit, and its 
work is essentially religious and Christian. 

55. And its It follows that the entire 

Methods are v. j £ j i j.- i 

Adapted to body 01 modern educational 

Education in principle is adapted to the 

Religion. .„ ■,£•■• 

specmc work oi training in 

religion. The spirit of modern education was 
received from religion, and now, enriched by 
new knowledge and wrought into a system, it 
returns to its source to become the basis of a 
reform in the educational methods of the 
church itself. The contribution of modern 
education to religion, then, is a suitable form 
and method for religious education. Thus, 
by another route, we reach once more the in- 
sight that the essential characteristic of such 
education is not its method, but rather its rec- 
ognition of the whole personality of the child, 
the whole content of civilisation, and the 
whole ideal of human life. 

56. The Nature Now at last we are ready 

of Method. „ . j n 

tor a more extended exposi- 
tion of the chief principles that underlie 



CONTRIBUTIONS OF MODERN EDUCATION 9T 

sound method. Methods are no longer to be 
thought of as mere catches or devices for 
holding the pupil's interest while we pour 
ideas into his passive or neutral mind. Inge- 
nuity is, of course, of real value to a teacher, 
for the teaching process can never be a merely 
mechanical cutting of cloth according to a 
pattern. But ingenuity should be in the serv- 
ice of insight. In the absence of educational 
principles, mere devices soon degenerate into 
vices. Sound methods grow directly out of 
the inmost nature of the child and of the 
world in which he is to realise himself. They 
are simply expressions of the nature of real- 
ity ; they are the laws of the child 's self-reali- 
sation making themselves effective through us 
who teach. 



CHAPTER VII 

EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT OF LIVING BEINGS 

57. The Mechan- Qur definition of educa- 

ical, the Vital, ,. ^i, ^ -^ ■ £c 4. 

and the Personal, tion says that it IS an efltort 

to assist development. It 
consists in exercising influence upon a living 
being. Now, the effect of any influence de- 
pends not merely upon the source, direction, 
and intent of it, but also upon the kind of ob- 
ject upon which it is directed. We influence 
mere things through pushes and pulls, but a 
vital process cannot be controlled in quite the 
same way. In education we have to do with 
life, not with mere things. We can build a 
house by laying one brick upon another, but 
we can, increase the weight of a living organ- 
ism only by feeding. AVe can bring an organ- 
ism to maturity only as an inner prin- 
ciple of growth makes use of the con- 
ditions wTiich we provide. Whatever be the 
ultimate nature of vital processes, this prac- 
tical difference between them and mechanical 
processes has always to be observed. A liv- 
ing thing grows only by assimilating food. 
Education, then, because it has to do with the 



EDUCATION AS DEVELOrMENT OF LIFE 99 

growth of living beings, cannot be any mere 
mechanical compulsion, any mere moulding 
of material, any mere heaping up or storing 
of anything whatever. Its type must be feed- 
ing, not pushing and pulling, not mere adding 
and subtracting. It succeeds only as external 
material is transformed into living tissue, and 
this act of transforming is performed by the 
organism itself. Education is not a mechan- 
ical but a vital process. 

Further, it is not only vital, but also per- 
sonal. To be a person is not merely to act 
from a law that is within, and to impose this 
law upon external material ; it is also to take 
possession of the law, to be a lawgiver to one *s 
self, and so to have self-knowledge and ex- 
ercise self-control. A mere thing has no self ; 
a plant or animal has no self ; for they never 
take possession of themselves, and their acts 
are never their own in this deep sense, but 
rather processes wrought upon or through 
rather than by them. Now, education seeks 
to influence action that is already self-action, 
or in process of becoming such. It is a rela- 
tion between persons. Reserving for the next 
chapter an analysis of the personal aspect of 
development, let us see what is involved in 
the organic or vital aspect thereof. 



LofC. 



100 EDUCATlOiN IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

58. The Psycho- j^ hiiman being is neither 

Physical , „ 

Organism. ^ lump 01 matter, nor a 

ghost, nor one of these plus 
the other, Man is neither a body that feels 
and thinks, nor yet a soul that merely uses the 
body as a dwelling place or as a tool. Pythag- 
oras and Plato looked upon the body as a 
prison of the soul, and many Christian writ- 
ers followed their example. Their view has 
a partial, but only partial, justification. In- 
citements to sin and vice arise largely out of 
what is called animal impulse and instinct, 
and in many other ways the body appears as 
an obstacle to the soul. Apparently it is the 
body that grows weary and demands sleep, 
that grows hungry and demands food, that 
contracts disease, that holds us bound to 
place and circumstance. Certainly it is true 
that bodily conditions represent to us our 
mental limitations, and that tlie attainment 
of good character consists in no small measure 
in securing control of the body for moral ends. 
Yet mind and body are not two utterly for- 
eign powers. The mind does not merely con- 
quer the body. The relation is far more inti- 
mate and positive than that. In a sense man 
is both body and mind; the one life has two 
aspects. Something like this thought appears 



EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT OF LIFE 101 

to have been in Paul's mind when, in his dis- 
cussion of the resurrection, he attributed 
bodily life to us even in the future world.^ So 
far is the body from being a prison, or a resi- 
dence, or a mere tool, that for the practical 
purposes of education we are obliged to look 
upon the physical life and the mental life as 
one life." In psychology this relation bears 
the name of the co-ordination or parallelism 
of mind and brain. All mental activity is 
accompanied by brain activity; the attributes 
of the human mind appear in connection with 
a human brain, and there only; maturity of 
mental life must wait for maturity of body; 
mental health and disease have as their re- 
verse side corresponding brain states. Even 
this is only the beginning of the story. We 
shall see in the sequel not only that the condi- 
tions of bodily growth are also conditions of 
mental development, but also that the specific 
training of character takes place partly in 
and through specific training of the body,^ 

M Cor. 15, 35-49. 

" Our purpose at this point is simply to secure a prac- 
tical working view of the facts. The metaphysical prob- 
lem has been touched upon in Chapter III, § 26. 

* A recent writer has shown that many character-de- 
fects have a little-suspected physiological ground. Thus, 
a boy who indulges in 'foul' playing in basket-ball em- 
ploys this underhand means very likely because he is 
not physically capable of winning, or of doing his part 
toward winning, in the normal manner. His physical 



102 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

59. How the From the vital aspect of 

Child Gives Laws t ,. •, n ti .,i j. 

for Education. education it lollows that 
educational laws do not 
originate altogether with the teacher and 
merely find their application in the child; in 
large part they originate in the child and find 
their point of application in the teacher. In 
a true sense, the child gives laws, and the 
teacher obeys. As a gardener is governed by 
the vital laws of the rose bush or c'herry tree 
that he would cultivate, so it is with the 
teacher. As far as the child's body is con- 
cerned, this principle is obvious, but how few 
of us realise its application to the child's 
mind ! The child or the youth perceives, feels, 
and thinks in his own way, and that way is 
different from ours. His mental development 
depends upon his having mental food appro- 
priate to these mental traits. The educator's 
duty is to find out what kind of food is appro- 
priate, and, having provided it, to rely upon 
the internal processes of assimilation to do the 
rest. This implies effort to discover how each 
thing in the child's life appears from the 

vitality is likely to be found below the normal. — See 
article by Ellas G. Brown in Boyliood, 1903 : "Curable 
Physioal Defects," etc. — There is, in fact, scarcely a de- 
fect of disposition or of liabitual will in a child or youth 
concerning wbich it is not wise to ask how far, if at all, 
physical conditions contribute to it. 



EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT OF LIFE 103 

child's own standpoint; it implies, also, imag- 
ination and sympathy, which alone make it 
possible for an adult to enter into child life 
in any living way. 

What self-control and self-restraint does 
not this require! How easy it is to assume 
that what is obvious to us ought to be obvious 
to the young also; how laborious to ask our- 
selves each time how it seems from their point 
of view. How easy it seems for our strength 
to compel weak childhood to adapt itself to us 
and to things as they appear to us. Yet in 
reality we can no more compel a child's mind 
than we can compel his digestion. Within 
limits, to be sure, we can control both, but 
wholesome control in either case consists in 
providing appropriate food and other con- 
ditions. It consists in our obeying rather 
than compelling. Even when a child out- 
wardly conforms to us ; when lips repeat what 
we wish to hear ; when the child is sincere in 
his utterances, there may be mental indiges- 
tion and mal-assimilation. By and by, when 
some catastrophe to faith or character occurs, 
we wonder how it is that a person who has 
enjoyed such a good bringing up can go so 
far astray. The root of the matter is that, 
from the beginning, pressure has taken the 



104 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

place of food, and the resulting conformity 
has been mistaken for growth. In other cases 
we are puzzled to behold good character blos- 
soming in a bed of weeds. The child's train- 
ing has been neglected, yet he turns out well. 
In such cases, if we could see all the condi- 
tions, we should generally discover that, in 
some way, the child had actually had access 
to appropriate food.^ 
60. Tha Child is A difference between 

not a Diminutive , ., , ,.„ , , ,, ,.„ , 

Adult, but child liie and adult hie has 

Qualitatively always been recognised, of 

course. But the points of 
difference have not generally been under- 
stood. Our first thought is that the child 
is simply small and weak, that the dif- 
ference between him and a grown person 
is merely quantitative. But this is not 
true of either mind or body. The adult 
body is not only larger and stronger; it 
has also functions that are altogether absent 
in the child. So it is with the mind. There is 
not only a difference in range of experience 
and power of inference, but also in emotional 
color, in felt values, in personal meaning in 
things and ideas. An adult and a child who 

^ Yet we must never assume that circumstances alone 
determine cliaracter. See tlie next chapter, especially 
I 67. 



EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT OF LIFE 105 

are placed in the same situation do not neces- 
sarily experience it as the same, any more 
than an artist and a plowman feel a given 
landscape in the same way. A subjective 
principle enters into the interpretation in 
every case, and childhood and youth at their 
various stages have characteristic modes of 
interpretation. The language of religion and 
morals does not mean just the same in the 
mouth of a child as in that of an adult. A 
given act, also, that indicates a certain mental 
condition in adult life may be performed by 
a child from an entirely different internal 
impulse. Some of the evidence for this prop- 
osition will be given as we proceed, but all 
child study proves it. The child lives in his 
own world, and, though he may be truly re- 
ligious, he will be so in his own way. He 
should not be expected to reproduce the re- 
ligion of his elders, even in diminutive form. 

61. Development Another way of stating 

IS IVIor© thsn 

Mere Growth. this important difference 

between the child and the 
adult is this : The child develops, and develop- 
ment is more than mere growth. Growth 
signifies increase in size or strength, while 
development includes the further notion of 
qualitative change. The normal progress of 



106 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

a child is not movement up an inclined plane ; 
there is not simply more and more of the 
same thing. We have not simply to provide 
a certain kind of food in larger and larger 
quantities. The problem of education is 
vastly more complicated than that. The diet 
of the mind, as well as that of the body, has 
to be changed from time to time. The practi- 
cal outcome is that we must begin to observe 
times and seasons in child development. We 
must know when to change from one kind of 
food to another. The resulting conception is 
that of a series of stages which have much 
in common, but each of which makes its own 
demands and its own contributions to the 
child's progress. 

62. Education is Development, rather than 

More than Mere • ■ ,• • j.x. £ ii, 

instruction. instruction, is therefore the 

central idea in education. 
Instruction has reference to the intellect, or 
function of knowing, while education has ref- 
erence to the whole living being. Moreover, 
instruction is not necessarily educative at all ; 
for it may issue in increase of knowledge 
without any increase of the self. Instruction 
is truly educative only when it contributes to 
self development, only when it enters into 
vital and nutritive connection with the child's 



EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT OF LIFE 107 

life from stage to stage, only when the knowl- 
edge that it conveys ceases to be an external 
possession and becomes, so to speak, flesh of 
one's flesh. The best thing that can happen 
to any child is to have the means of living his 
own life completely at each stage. That is 
the best preparation for the future, and noth- 
ing, absolutely nothing, is gained by attach- 
ing information to the outside of his life. Of 
course, a truth may have lower and higher 
aspects ; it may even be adapted to all stages 
of development; and in general such truths 
are the most educative of all. Yet the higher 
aspects must await the coming of the child. 
To unfold them too early is to make them ex- 
ternal and to run the risk that this external 
look of them will exclude all further consid- 
eration, even at the appropriate age. 
63. Adaptation is These remarks have im- 

More than Mere ,. , t .• 

Simplification. mediate apphcation to re- 

ligious education. For our 
ancient and inveterate habit has been, first, to 
regard the child as simply a diminutive adult ; 
second, to identify religious instruction with 
religious education ; and, third, to assume that 
the mere simplification of such instruction 
constitutes adequate adaptation. For adults 
there has been a longer catechism, and for 



108 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

children the same catechism abbreviated. 
Adaptation to childhood has been, in fact, 
largely verbal, as though the child could really 
take in a system of theology if only the Avords 
and sentences were short and simple. That 
this is no exaggeration of the practically uni- 
versal attitude of only a few years ago could 
easily be proved from printed matter intended 
for use with children. Connected with this 
misunderstanding of the child Avas a misun- 
derstanding of the adult also, for the assump- 
tion was made that the graces of the Chris- 
tian life are in general products of a knowl- 
edge of Christian doctrines. Undoubtedly 
a completed character is one in which the 
truth is consciously realised in conduct. But 
this rational element is certainly not the most 
prominent factor even with adults, much less 
with children. Other elements of character 
appear first, such as right feeling, aspiration, 
habit. These things grow through processes 
that are unconscious to the child, and often 
to parents and teachers. Unconscious imita- 
tion and unreasoned adoption of prevailing 
standards are far more influential than any 
possible teaching of doctrine. 

Adaptation to the child, therefore, does not 
consist chiefly in the simplification of Ian- 



EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT OF LIFE 109 

guage or even of ideas. It does not consist 
chiefly in any scheme of instruction what- 
ever. It implies, first of all, that the whole 
environment of the child be attended to. His 
education, for weal or for woe, goes forward 
through everything with which he comes into 
contact. Food, sanitary conditions, contact 
with nature, with books, with newspapers, 
with pictures, the tone of the family life, the 
principles that actually control the conduct 
of those abouthim — all these must be included 
in any broad scheme of adaptation. Then will 
be added adaptation in respect to instruction. 
This will include, in addition to simplification, 
the adjustment of the subject-matter itself to 
the various stages of development, and the 
adjustment of method to the characteristic 
mental standpoint at each stage. 

64. Spontaneous What, then, is the clue to 

Interests as Clue ,, j. i j- a c ^t,^ 

and Leverage. ^he actual state 01 the 

child's mind? In general, 
his spontaneous interests. Not all his inter- 
ests, for it is possible to work up artificial 
ones. By means of rewards and punishments, 
by appeals to vanity, emulation or selfishness, 
by stimulation of various kinds, even the 
stimulus of love for a teacher, the child may 
be made eagerly to run in a road other than 



110 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 



that of normal development. The mere fact 
that a child is interested in a study does not 
prove that the study is wholesome for him or 
that the method is sound. The interest may 
be a destroying fever, or, if not positively 
deleterious, it may over-develop the mind in 
one direction while essential powers are going 
to decay. What the child's nature actually 
calls for at any stage can be discovered only 
by noting what he spontaneously does in the 
presence of abundant material for self-expres- 
sion. The child is essentially active in both 
body and mind. Watch him when he has per- 
fect freedom, and you shall discover that 
work, both mental and physical, is done with 
enjoyment. Through such work comes power, 
development, education. Here the child re- 
veals himself, and here parent and teacher 
find the true educational leverage. They have 
the task of providing truly educative material 
in which the pupil's interest will be spon- 
taneous, not forced or over-stimulated. 

Here is a boy who insists upon taking the 
family clock to pieces in order to see how it 
keeps time. This spontaneous interest may be 
treated in either of three ways; It may be 
suppressed, or it may be indulged without 
guidance, or it may be guided toward an 



EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT OF LIFE 111 

educational end. To suppress it is to cause 
a wholesome intellectual impulse to wither. 
To indulge it without guidance leads to de- 
structiveness and sensationalism — things will 
be taken to pieces for the sake of the imme- 
diate impression. But through wise feeding 
of this interest the boy may attain not only 
to knowledge of mechanical principles and 
devices, but also to habits of observation and 
sound induction. 

Note, similarly, the restless hands of the 
boys in yonder Sunday-school class. Here is 
a sign that occupation should be provided for 
hands as well as brain, and that body and 
mind should work together in the learning of 
the day's lesson. 

Here is a child who calls for stories, stories, 
without end. Of what possible use would it 
be to give such a child instruction in a doc- 
trinal catechism? Let the spontaneous in- 
terest be fed, yet not for the sake of quieting 
the child. For the content of the story ed- 
ucates. Imagination, feeling, moral and spir- 
itual aspiration can be called out by simply 
bringing appropriate images before the mind 
in the story form. 

"When a boy reaches the age that calls for 
"blood and thunder" stories, what shall be 



112 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

done? Shall we condemn his taste because 
we ourselves have outgrown it ? Shall we try- 
to suppress such reading? That would give 
incentive for the clandestine reading that has 
helped to ruin many a boy. Secret disobedi- 
ence is the natural result of trying to sup- 
press a spontaneous interest. And even if 
our negative measures succeed, what do we 
accomplish? We simply take something of 
the spirit, the freshness, the initiative out 
of the boy; he is in the way of becoming 
namby-pamby. The only sound method is to 
supply the demand by providing wholesome 
tales of adventure and heroism.^ 

65. Securing and The problem of securing 

Holding i i i t , , . • ■, 

Attention. ^^^d holding attention has 

bothered teachers always 

and everywhere. One reason therefor is that 

the relation of attention to interest has been 

only imperfectly understood. On this point 

there are two extremes to be avoided. One is 

the old notion of compelling attention by 

creating artificial interests, whether by means 

of rewards and punishments, or by means of 

emulation or other kinds of artificial stimula- 

' At the same time, we should remember that an In- 
terest that appears to be spontaneous may be a product 
of earlier training or of earlier neglect. See Introduc- 
tion to Irving King : The Psychology of Child-Develop- 
ment (Chicago, 1903). 



EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT OP LIFE 113 

tion. The other extreme consists in relying 
so completely upon spontaneous, pleasure- 
giving interests as not to produce the abso- 
lutely essential habit of giving attention to 
disagreeable things. If we adopt the first ex- 
treme, the artificiality of the incentives upon 
which we rely is likely to be attributed by the 
pupil to the subject-matter of instruction. 
But if we adopt the second extreme, our pupils 
will fail to learn the lesson of doing duty as 
good soldiers, whether it is agreeable or not. 

The child must be trained, then, to attend 
to unattractive things, yet not as a slave under 
compulsion, but through an inner, personal 
interest in them. This is to say that the 
range and depth of his interests must be in- 
creased. The entering wedge is the present, 
spontaneous interest, whatever it may be. 
This already has the attention. The next 
move is to feed this interest with such ma- 
terial as enlarges and guides it, and so trans- 
fers attention to new matter M^hich at first 
perhaps is not felt to be interesting. Interest 
in things present can be extended to things of 
the same class in the past. From picture to 
story, from story to biography, from biog- 
raphy to history; from a battle as an out- 
ward event to the issue involved, and finally 



114 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

to political or ethical principles ; from our na- 
tional heroes to the heroes of the Bible and of 
Christian history — these will represent the 
principle of extending interests and so ex- 
tending attention. In general, attention 
should be secured and held through the in- 
trinsic value which the child feels to be 
present in the subject-matter of instruction. 
This does not exclude such extrinsic incite- 
ments as arise naturally through group activ- 
ities, but it warns us against detaching in- 
struction from the immediate, spontaneous 
interest. On the basis of intrinsic interest 
the teacher can secure the hardest work, 
work that even approximates the hardships 
that children willingly go through in carry- 
ing on their sports or other self-initiated en- 
terprises. Furthermore, self-imposed hard 
work, if the subject-matter be worthy and 
of sufficient breadth and depth, is the most 
educative. For in later life the real test of 
our character will be whether we will impose 
upon ourselves tasks that we might escape, 
whether we will take an interest in that which 
is worthy of our interest.^ 

1 On the relation of spontaneous to acquired interests, 
see William James : Talks to Teachers on Psychology 
(New York, 1899). On the necessity of starting all in- 
struction at the child's level and upon the ground of 
an already existing interest, see Patterson DuBols : Th« 
Point of Contact in Teaching (New York, 1901). 



EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT OF LIFE 115 

66. Apperception This principle of building 

or Mental - .,, . . j 

Assimilation. from witmn outward must 

be pursued a step further. 
A spontaneous interest means that the mind 
is actively seeking its food. Now, just as 
physical food, in order to fulfil its end, must 
be not only eaten but also assimilated, so in- 
struction must be mentally assimilated before 
it can build up the mind.^ The technical 
name for mental assimilation is apperception. 
The fact is as simple as the name is clumsy. 
The essential fact is that we understand a 
new idea by means of ideas we already have. 
A little boy who had learned to call a dog 
"bow-wow," gave the same name to cats, 
sheep, and other small animals. When the 
Thanksgiving turkey appeared upon the table, 
"Bow-wow" was his remark. Similarly cows 
and other large animals were called "ossy" 
(horse). This extension of old names to new 
objects is an outward sign tbat new objects 
are being grouped into the classes already 
recognised. The new is tbus being assimilated 
by means of the old. In the days before the 
Chicago River had been purified by means of 
the drainage canal, a little girl was heard to 

^ To this physical simile, Patterson DuBois has added 
several others, as nurture by atmosphere, by light, and 
by exercise. — The Natural Way in Moral Training (New 
YorJt, 1903). 



116 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

remark to a companion, "I hate rivers, don't 
you?" "Why?" said the other. ''Because 
they smell so ! " was the reply. This little girl 
was interpreting her instruction in geography 
by means of her own experiences. 

This process is a universal one. We see the 
new through the old, the distant through the 
near ; we understand things that Ave have not 
experienced by imaging them under the form 
of those that we liave experienced. We grasp 
the idea of God's love through our experience 
as children and parents, or as wives and 
husbands, and the highest conception of 
divinity that we can form is that which we 
receive through contemplation of a com- 
plete human life. On the other hand, each 
new experience or idea, in the act of 
being interpreted by means of an old one, 
modifies it. After the little boy had called 
the Thanksgiving turkey "bow-wow," this 
name meant more to him than before, and the 
object, dog, had new and wider relationships. 
The great fact of apperception, then, broadly 
stated, is that the old idea interprets the new 
one, but is modified by it. 

The applications of this principle to educa- 
tion are perfectly direct. First, the success 
of any educational effort depends at every 



EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT OF LIFE 117 

stage upon the extent and depth of the child's 
past experience not less than upon the new 
material that is presented. Hence the value 
of large and varied contact with nature, of 
handling things, of using tools, of engaging 
all the senses and all the active powers. 
Second, perceiving anything is more than 
merely seeing it, and learning a truth is more 
than committing to memory the formula 
thereof, even though the meaning of every 
word in the formula be understood. The 
ability to define and formulate, or even to 
give correct answers to searching questions 
does not measure one's actual acquisitions. 
The important question always is this : What 
does this mean to the child in terms of his 
own experience? Third, it follows that the 
teacher must give at least as much attention 
to what is already in the child's mind as to 
the new ideas that are to be presented. The 
new idea cannot be handed over, or fired into 
the waiting mind. It can only be attached to 
some idea already there, and if it is not so 
attached it is not really acquired. One of the 
great undertakings of the child-study move- 
ment is to discover what is the stock of ideas 
of children at various ages. Such a stock of 
ideas reveals "the point of contact" with the 



118 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

child's actual experience, and knowledge of it 
enables the teacher to effect the junction or 
rather fusion of the new and the old through 
the child's own spontaneous interest. Many 
applications of this principle to religious and 
moral instruction lie upon the surface. Others 
will be unfolded as we proceed. 



CHAPTER VIII 

EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT OP PERSONS 

67. What is it to We have said that the 

be a Person? i m t • , i 

cniid IS not merely an or- 
ganism, physical and mental, but also a 
person. What is it to be a person ? Without 
being too formal or technical, we may answer 
that personality implies self-knowledge and 
self-control, or, more definitely, the ability to 
think one's self in relation to one's world, set 
ends before one's self as desirable, and freely 
choose them as one's own. Now, education is 
intended to assist the child to realise himself 
as a person. Here our figure of development 
through feeding ceases to be adequate. For, 
whereas digestion and assimilation are 
wrought within us rather than by us, we are 
persons only through acts of self-discrimina- 
tion, self-criticism, and choice that are strictly 
our own. There is a sense in which personal- 
ity or selfhood may be said to be self-attained 
rather than bestowed. From within are the 
issues of life. Of course we are not self- 
originating but created, yet the deepest mys- 
tery of creation lies just in the fact that we 



120 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

are at once dependent creatures and yet free 
persons, that we are bestowed upon ourselves 
and yet have to attain to ourselves. At the 
beginning of life we are free persons only in 
a potential sense. We are not in possession 
of ourselves, but we are possessed by impres- 
sions and impulses. In a very complete sense 
we are as yet creatures of circumstances. Only 
through a long and slow process of education 
does anyone attain to his own self, but in pro- 
portion as he does attain thereunto he becomes 
free. He is no longer a mere mental mechan- 
ism moved by blind impulse, but in some 
measure he uses the mechanism of his own 
mind for self-chosen ends. He is no longer a 
mere creature of circumstances; he does not 
merely adjust himself to his environment, but 
rather he adjusts his environment to his own 
ends. What a circumstance shall be to a 
person depends upon what the person chooses 
to make of it.^ In view of all this we may well 
modify our earlier definitions of education by 
making it to be an effort to assist immature 
persons to realise tbemselves and their des- 
tiny as persons. 

» Mackenzie well says that what a circumstance Is to 
us, and so what are to be reckoned circumstances, de- 
pends upon our character. The same external or internal 
fact Is one thing to one man, another to another. — J. S. 
Mackenzie: Manual of Ethics (London, 1899), pages 
85 ff. 



EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONS 121 

68. Self-Realisa- Education is to assist 

tion Requires ,. . 

Self- Expression. seli-realisation. This im- 
plies, first, that the pupil is 
to be active, not passive. It implies, in the 
second place, not only activity, or the exercise 
of functions, but also self-originating activity. 
In a sense the only education possible for a 
person is self-education. This is not quite 
the same as training. Training includes the 
formation of habit and increase of power or 
accuracy through practice ; education includes 
all this and in addition the securing possession 
of one's self or free self-realisation. A dog or 
a horse can be trained, but only persons can 
be educated. It follows, in the third place, 
that true education must develop individual- 
ity. Its products cannot be machine-made and 
uniform. It is true, as Jesus tells us, that we 
can save our life only by self-sacrifice for 
society, but there must first be a self before 
there can be self-sacrifice. The self-sacrifice 
that Jesus had in mind is not dull conformity 
or obliteration of individuality, but the active 
contribution to society of something that is 
worth while. The more distinctive the con- 
tribution, the more does it enrich the life of 
society. The social end of education is there- 
fore not hindered but promoted through the 



122 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

development of strong individuality in 
pupils.^ Summing up these implicates, we may 
say that the education of persons must assist 
their self-realisation, that self-realisation re- ^ 
quires self-expression, and that this includes 
activity, initiative or freedom, and individ- 
uality. 

69. "No Impres- The necessity for activity 

sion without 

Expression." on the part or the pupil 

might have been shown in 
the last chapter, where we were dealing with 
the mind simply as an organism. For growth, 
as everyone knows, comes through exercise. 
But this truth attains vastly deeper meaning 
through its connection with the principle of 
personal self-realisation. With the thought 
of personality in the background we now 
proceed to examine the general relation of 
activity to mental development. The neces- 
sity of pupil-activity in education has attained 
crystalline expression in two maxims or mot- 
toes: "No impression without expression," 
and "Learn by doing." The first of these 
maxims means that everything received by 
the pupil from teacher or text-book must 

' For a discussion of the social aspect of religious 
education, see Chapter XXII. 



EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONS 123 

be expressed by the pupil before it can 
become a vital possession. We do not really 
learn anything until we express it in 
■word or act. We do not first learn it 
and then express it, but the expression is itself 
a part of the process of acquisition. Impres- 
sion without expression leaves the mind at 
best in a state of apparent but unreal illu- 
mination. Anyone can observe this in himself. 
How often do we fancy that we have grasped 
a subject, only to find the merest ghosts of 
ideas in our mind when we try to tell what 
we suppose we know or believe. How many 
times, too, have we seen our subject develop 
and grow clear in the act of talking or writing 
about it. How much more so is it with 
children, whose resources are so much less 
than ours. Impression must pass promptly 
over into expression, or become powerless and 
meaningless. The very little child must tell 
the story in his own words, or act it out ; older 
children must recite the lesson, or write a 
composition, or draw a map or picture, or 
work out a problem, or devise a dramatic rep- 
resentation. Such modes of expression are 
not over and above the work of instruction, 
but an essential part of it. 



124 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

70- An A teacher in a public 

Illustration. , , • ^ .• i 

school was instructing^ her 

pupils in the history of our country. The 
lesson for the day was the landing of the Pil- 
grims at Plymouth. The story was first told, 
and then the teacher said, "Would you like 
to play this story?" The children assented, 
and a leader, a little girl, was appointed. She 
promptly called out other children and as- 
signed them their parts, and without hint or 
guidance from any source she devised and the 
children enacted the following scene : The 
Mayflower was represented by children ar- 
ranged in two lines like those of a ship 's sides. 
At bow and at stern a child held a flag. The 
Pilgrims were represented by the other chil- 
dren, who were first enclosed within the lines 
just referred to, and later walked ashore with 
due gravity. The value of such an exercise 
is manifold. It makes the story vivid to the 
pupil, gives it reality, fixes it in the memory, 
and — what is at least equally important— de- 
velops initiative and individuality. 

71. "Learn by We shall see, after a 

^" while, how the motto, "No 

impression without expression," is being ap- 
plied in Sunclay-sehool instruction. But first 
we must unfold the general principle a little 



EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT OP PERSONS 125 

further. "Learn by doing" advances us an- 
other step. This maxim means that an idea 
is best acquired by doing something in which 
the idea is used. Children, as everybody 
knows, like to do things. Now, the modern 
teacher takes advantage of this fact by lead- 
ing the child to do things in which there arises 
need for measurement (which involves arith- 
metic), language (reading and writing), geo- 
graphical and historical knowledge, etc. The 
most advanced experiment in this direction is 
that of Professor John Dewey, who has organ- 
ised a school in which the child is to be led 
by this method from the earliest kindergarten 
age to his entrance to college.^ One purpose 
of this school is to continue the natural educa- 
tion that is begun in the family by the con- 
tact of the child with life in the concrete. 
The pupil accordingly engages in three do- 
mestic occupations that are fundamental to 
human well-being— the preparation of food 
(cooking), of clothing (spinning and weav- 
ing), and of shelter (carpentry, etc.). This 
work introduces him at once to nature, and 
he acquires some of the rudiments of natural 
and physical science. Since it requires meas- 
urement, symbols, and records, he is led to 

^ See John Dewey : The School and Society (Chicago, 
1900). 



126 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

feel the need of arithmetic, reading and writ- 
ing, and he studies them in response to his 
own spontaneous interest, and for the sake of 
their immediate usableness. The simpler 
forms of these three occupations are first un- 
dertaken, then the more complex. As this 
sequence reproduces the order of the develop- 
ment of civilisation, the pupil becomes inter- 
ested in history; he lives it through, to some 
extent, in miniature. At every step his in- 
ventive or creative power is given scope, 
whether in practical or artistic form. At 
every step, too, the work is co-operative, and 
therefore educative of the social feelings. The 
bearing of this remarkable experiment is com- 
plex, yet certain principles stand out clearly. 
For one thing, the child is dealing with real 
life, so that the ordinary artificial isolation of 
the school from the home and from the v/orld 's 
work is avoided. Then, always appealing to 
the pupil's spontaneous interest, the school 
arranges the material and the occupations so 
that the resulting reactions adjust the indi- 
vidual to his fellows, and to the knowledge, 
the arts, and the industries by which society 
lives. The point for our especial attention, 
however, is the radical way in which the prin- 
ciple of learning by doing is applied. Just as 



EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONS 127 

the race has come by its knowledge primarily 
through doing the things necessary for pre- 
serving life and attaining life's chosen ends, 
so the child is to be instructed by doing the 
things in which he, too, is really interested. 

72. The Sensor! - The necessity for educa- 

Motor Arc* 

tion through the pupil's ac- 
tivity is grounded in our nervous and mental 
structure. Looked at broadly, the work of 
mind consists in transforming impressions 
into acts. The nervous mechanism involved 
in this process is technically described as the 
"sensori-motor arc." The chief parts of our 
nervous system are three: sensory nerves, 
which conduct sense-stimulus to the brain; 
the brain itself, which serves as a sort of cen- 
tral telephone exchange for putting one 
part of the organism into touch with other 
parts; and the motor nerves, which conduct 
the stimulus of motion to the muscles and 
cause them to contract. Similarly, our typical 
conscious states are first, impressions of sense ; 
second, our thoughts and emotions ; and, third, 
our volitions and impulses to action. At first 
sight we fancy that these three come in serial 
order, first impression, then thought, then 
action ; but this is only half the truth. For, 
while thought may be deliberate, and action 



128 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

may be postponed to await the conclusion of 
reflection, nevertheless no one of these proc- 
esses ever takes place entirely by itself. A 
complete mental state involves all three 
aspects of mind. With every impression 
there goes at least a nascent act. At the very 
least there are changes in the circulation and 
the breathing, and even our voluntary muscles 
contract and relax in greater or less degree 
with the changing shades of mental impres- 
sion. Anyone can easily prove this to himself 
by occasionally taking note of the state of the 
physical organism when the mind appears to 
be merely receiving impressions, as in listen- 
ing to a story, looking at a landscape, etc. 
The point of all this, as far as education is 
concerned, is that a mental state is never com- 
plete until it has adequate expression, or until 
act balances impression. Whatever clogs the 
active or expressive channels clogs the whole 
flow of mental energy. The result of inad- 
equate expression is unclearness, misunder- 
standing, forgetfulness, or possibly a super- 
ficial conceit of knowledge. 
73. Neglect of This principle holds for 

Religtou's°" '" adults as well as for chil- 

Training. dren, and neglect of it ac- 

counts for many a failure, 



EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT OP PERSONS 129 

complete or partial, in religious work. 
Preaching, for example, is often weak, in spite 
of both intelligence and earnestness, because 
it fails to reveal a direct way for the hearers 
actively to apply the truth they hear. An 
effective sermon is not necessarily the same 
as an affecting one. The pew must talk and 
act before the impression made by the pulpit 
can be a really vital matter, and the talking 
and acting, let it be remembered, are not mere 
consequences of having the truth, but also a 
part of the process of getting hold of it. "If 
any man will to do ... he shall know. ' ' If 
this be true of church work with adults, how 
much more does it apply to work with 
children? Adults have many modes of self- 
expression, some of which are indirect, and 
many of which can be postponed to a greater 
or less extent. But a child must express him- 
self at once and directly, or the impression 
fades beyond effective recovery. 

In many cases church methods with the 
young are very little more than a weakened 
form of preaching. They ignore the necessity 
of active expression. This is one of the reasons 
why biblical facts and spiritual truths remain 
so external to many pupils of the Sunday 
school. Biblical history that is gone over and 



130 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

over in the class is forgotten, and the child 
reaches maturity shockingly ignorant of the 
simplest facts. One ignorant saint who puts 
the Bible to daily use, and so expresses his 
impressions, learns more of the Scriptures 
in a year than many a bright Sunday- 
school pupil learns in a double seven year 
cycle. The same principle applies to the 
"applications" or "lessons" to be gathered 
from the biblical material. Many teachers 
fancy that their most important duty is 
to tell the class just what moral or spiritual 
lesson can be learned from the passage under 
consideration. But if a teacher stops here he 
is likely to do more harm than good. A reli- 
gious impression that does not secure expres-^/O 
sion is worse than no impression at all. For 
it remains external, it seems unreal, and the 
repetition of such religious impressions leads 
finally to a habit of regarding religion itself 
as external and unrelated to one's real life. 

74. Not only Let US nOW SCO the bear- 

Activity, but . f> 11 .1 • 

, I p mg 01 all this upon person- 

Self- Activity, ality, an idea which for the 

moment has been kept in the 
background. We have seen that the child 
should express whatever he is set to learn, 
and that this expression takes place most nor- 



EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONS 131 

mally when the facts or truths to be mastered 
occur to him as essential parts of some active 
work in which he is spontaneously interested. 
A third and deeper aspect of the case is that 
the pupil here takes the initiative and in the 
outcome expresses not merely the fact or truth 
that he is learning, but also himself. Pesta- 
lozzi laid the stress upon activity, but Froebel 
upon self -activity.^ That is, the child enters 
upon a given educational activity because of 
his own interest in that activity. In a sense, 
he freely initiates and carries forward his own 
education. While the teacher chooses for him 
by providing certain kinds of material for 
self-expression rather than others, the child 
also chooses for himself because he is inter- 
ested in tliat material. His reactions upon it 
constitute his own free self-expression. He 
not merely learns something, he also progres- 
sively discovers himself. If it were possible 
for him to put this aspect of his experience 
into words, he might say: "I discover that, 
to live my very own life, I must say 'I am,' 
not 'I is'; that I must be able to know how 
much one-third of one-half is; that I must 
know the boundaries of my town, my county, 
ray state ; that I must realise where my food 

^ J. L. Hughes : Froebel's Educational Laws for all 
Teachers (New York. 1890), Chapters IX and X. 



132 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

comes from, how my ancestors attained civi- 
lised life and conquered their liberty. All 
these things belong to me, and I should be less 
myself without them." 

75. Freedom in This is the great principle 

Education. /? £ i i -• 

01 ireedom m education. 

The child is not to be forced into any pre- 
arranged mold. He is not merely to imitate. 
He is not merely to assimilate food. He is 
rather to attain to selfhood by a series of 
spontaneously initiated activities that lead to 
a progressive series of self-discoveries. The 
movement for freedom in education is prac- 
tically parallel with the modern movement for 
popular government. The two reforms are, 
in fact, parts of one effort of the human spirit. 
When the movement for American indepen- 
dence and for popular government in France 
was organising itself, the pedagogical reform 
was also setting in. The century of our po- 
litical liberty is also the century in which the 
child has been emancipated from repressive 
school methods. Many men now living have 
witnessed a large part of this peaceful revolu- 
tion. They can recall a time when both the 
instruction and the discipline in the ordinary 
school were full of restraint and compulsion 
intended to mold the child to the teacher's 



EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONS 133 

ideas. In the well managed school of to-day, 
if any child does not learn, if he is restless or 
refractory, the teacher, instead of concocting 
schemes for more effective compulsion, asks 
himself wherein he has failed to understand 
the child and adapt the school work to him. 

The kindergarten has been not only the most 
complete expression of this idea, but also the 
leader of all other branches of general educa- 
tion. It has stood as protector of the joyous 
spontaneity of childhood. It has steadily 
asserted that when the child comes into the 
schoolroom he should not be expected to lay 
aside the freedom of his home life and his 
plays. He should continue freely to express 
himself, and the school should find its mission 
in providing means for fuller and richer and 
freer self-expression. From the kindergarten 
this idea has spread upward through the 
whole school organism even to the college. 
The elective system of studies has been 
adopted by the colleges and is being adopted 
by the high schools largely in response to this 
principle. School discipline has become 
largely a matter of student self-government. 
As a consequence, school work has become 
more joyous and discipline easier. 

Now, joy in work leads to harder work and 



134 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

larger results. Two or three generations ago 
most teachers would probably have denied the 
proposition that pupils like hard work. To- 
day thoughtful teachers would make a dis- 
tinction : children and youths like hard work 
that is self-expressive, but they still dislike 
the task that has no personal meaning for 
them. Children are not naturally lazy. Quite 
the contrary. For behold the wealth of physi- 
cal and mental energy that they put into 
games and the solving of puzzles. It is utterly 
natural for the young to work hard, and to 
gain. thereby physical and mental ruggedness, 
vigor, power of application. Every healthy 
child or youth is a storage battery of power 
that merely waits for opportunity to discharge 
itself. Any pupil who is not habitually atten- 
tive and interested should be assumed to be 
either defective in body or mind, or else suf- 
fering the results of defective method. 

76. Interest of The interest of religion 

Religion and j ^ • .^ • • i 

iViorals in this ^^^ morals in the principle 

Principle. of freedom in education is 

greater, if possible, than 
that of so-called secular education. For reli- 
gion and morals have primary reference to the 
free personality as such. Their aim is to 
induce men freely to choose the good, nay, 



EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONS 135 

they aim even to make men like the good and 
find their freedom and self-realisation therein. 
Religious and moral education, accordingly, 
cannot be anything less than the progressive 
attainment of freedom through the exercise 
of freedom; and its method can be nothing 
less than placing the child in a series of such 
concrete situations as shall reveal him to him- 
self as really interested in the good and self- 
enlisted on its side. This involves growing 
knowledge of good and evil, a developing 
spiritual appreciation, and training of the 
will. It is not instruction alone ; it is not habit 
alone ; it is not merely instruction plus habit ; 
it is also the personal sense of reality, of dis- 
covering one's very own life. This is true not 
only of the ethical side of religion, but also 
of the sacred experiences in which the soul 
realises the presence of God. Here, too, is 
freedom and the highest joy, and the road 
thereto is likewise that of free self-expression. 



CHAPTER IX 

PUNISHMENT AND PLAY 

77. Necessary The present chapter will 

Limits of , ... 

Freedom. 06 an attempt to illustrate 

and apply the principle of 
free self-expression by reference to the two 
extremes, play and punishment. The former 
appears at first sight to correspond most 
closely to the idea of free self-expression, yet 
to have little educational value, while the 
latter appears to contradict the principle of 
free self-expression, yet to be essential to 
training of the moral will. We will begin 
with punishment. This does, indeed, stand 
for a limitation upon freedom, but upon re- 
flection we perceive that freedom must, in any 
ease, be limited. Every boy, for example, 
wishes to play with powder and fire-arms. 
Now, here is a situation in which, in general, 
freedom cannot be and remain unlimited. 
For, if the parent does not say "No," the ex- 
plosives themselves will say it by injuring 
the boy and curtailing his power. This is a 
typical case. Unrestrained freedom destroj^s 
freedom, and conversely the most complete 



PUNISHMENT AND PLAY 137 

freedom is self-limiting. In the case of fire- 
arms the most complete freedom is that of an 
adult who, in view of the nature of explos- 
ives, voluntarily restrains or sets rules to him- 
self. 

Free self-expression, then, includes self- 
restraint. Now, the problem with regard to 
punishment of the young is simply whether 
punishments inflicted against the will of the 
child may nevertheless constitute to the child 
his own self-expression in the way of self- 
limitation. We know that mere habits can be 
formed under the influence of prospective or 
actual chastisement, and that, to this extent, 
the rod may help to form the character. But, 
unless in and through the chastisement the 
child discovers himself, the value of the habits 
thus formed may be seriously doubted. The 
practical aim must be to make all punish- 
ments self-punishments, all restraints self- 
restraints. 

78. Common Children are punished 

Mistakes as to , p, -, , i , 

Punishment. l^ss often and less severely 

than formerly. This is due 
in part to increasing emphasis upon the 
milder aspects of Christianity, in part 
to the movement for freedom in educa- 
tion, and in part, perhaps, to simple dis- 



138 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

inclination to take up a problem of so great 
delicacy. In the main this change in the lot 
of childhood is probably for the better. Yet 
no one will deny that chastisement is often 
inflicted unwisely, or that it is often omitted 
where it is most needed. There is ground for 
suspecting that few parents have any clear 
notion, and fewer still any sound one, of the 
relation of punishment to character building. 
Penalties are inflicted for the sake of some 
slight immediate end, such as quiet in the 
household, or even as an act of resentment. 
Punishment is frequently omitted altogether 
for the sake of avoiding disturbance, or be- 
cause a parent fears to create a situation 
that he may not be able to control. It will not 
be out of place, then, to state a few maxims 
which grow directly out of the fact that our 
supreme duty to the young is to assist their 
development as persons. 

That punishment should never be inflicted 
upon children by an angry person, or be- 
cause of anger, resentment, or irritation of 
any kind, is almost self-evident. Whenever 
it is inflicted it should be as deliberate and 
well reasoned as an important business con- 
tract, and it should be administered as a duty 
that may not be put aside. Further, it should 



PUNISHMENT AND PLAY 139 

have a definite good end in view; it should 
look to the future, not merely to the past. 
AAHiatever be our conceptions of divine pun- 
ishments or of state punishments, certainly in 
the case of children mere retaliation, the mere 
vindication of broken law, and the mere asser- 
tion of authority or of abstract justice are out 
of place. The essential question is, What 
effect will the proposed treatment of the child 
have upon his own development? This ques- 
tion cannot be answered without considering 
the effect upon the spirit as well as the out- 
ward conduct. To punish wisely is to punish 
the inmost self so that life shall issue out of 
it. 

79. Punishment Punishment is educative 

Expression. i^ proportion as the dis- 

comfort of it seems to the 
child to be a genuine expression of what he 
himself is or does, so that desire awakens to 
overcome the present self and rise to a higher 
one. jIt is not enough to prevent the doing of 
some things and secure the doing of others ; 
discipline fails unless it helps the child to 
desire to do and to abstain. Correct disci- 
pline cultivates the preferences, the standard, 
the sense of what one really is. In a word, 
punishment should be the self-expression of 



140 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

a lower self out of which arises the sense of a 
higher self. To this end, penalties should be 
natural rather than artificial, that is, they 
should be and seem to be direct results of the 
child's own act rather than impositions of an 
apparently arbitrary will. Children should 
not be shielded too much from the painful 
consequences of foolish conduct. There is 
educative value in bruises, cuts, burns, and 
even in scratches and blows from other chil- 
dren. One of the worst situations into which 
a child can be placed is a home that so shields 
him from pain that he fails to learn the fact 
of law, both natural and social, and the cor- 
relative fact that self-restraint is essential to 
the largest freedom. 

Punishment in the strict sense— that is, as 
distinguished from mere consequences that 
occur under natural law— will have to do 
chiefly with violations of the conditions of 
social life. Here is where arbitrariness on the 
part of parent or teacher is most likely to 
creep in. Even rules that are really not arbi- 
trary may seem so to the child, and punish- 
ment for infringement of them, though it be a 
true copy of real life, may seem to him arti- 
ficial, unreasonable, and arbitrary. This is a 
serious matter. For whatever seems to the 



PUNISHMENT AND PLAY 141 

child like mere arbitrariness tends to call 
forth a response of the same kind ; in defence 
of his own sense of self, he conceals, deceives, 
and devises unsocial means of self-assertion. 

Rules and penalties, then, should not only 
not be arbitrary; they should not seem to be 
so. This will involve something in the way of 
explanation, but more in the way of devising 
social penalties that the offender shall see to 
be self-imposed. For example, selfishness and 
disregard of established order tend to break 
up plays and games ; therefore, in the interest 
of a game or play, Avhich is the child's own 
interest, a wilful child must sometimes be 
denied a desired pastime. Of course no chas- 
tisement for the moment seems joyous, but 
grievous. Temporarily the disciplinarian 
must oppose the child; yet the nature of the 
violated rule, the nature of the penalty, and 
the personal attitude in the administration 
thereof should all be such that the child 
quickly realises that his deeper will is in har- 
mony with the hand that chastises. A little 
boy by his play in the family living room had 
endangered a lighted lamp. He was repeat- 
edly warned, but the play impulse overcame 
him, he forgot, and soon the lamp was over- 
turned. Thereupon one of the parents, ex- 



142 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

plaining to the little boy the dangers of a poor 
memory, and pointing out that the little boy's 
own memory needed external help, adminis- 
tered sharp coi'poreal punishment. It was 
for the sake of the future, not of the past ; it 
represented a necessary order of things rather 
than an arbitrary will ; it became to the child- 
consciousness at once an expression of hia 
imperfect self and a means of helping him to 
realise a higher selfhood.^ 

80. Educational Let US turn now to the 

Value of Play. . •- n • i. 

extreme opposite or punish- 
ment, the unrestrained freedom of play. Al- 
cuin (died 804), who is usually regarded as 
the father of mediaeval education, looked upon 
play as frivolous and worthy only of being 
discouraged or suppressed. In this he was fol- 
lowed by various educators. Until compara- 
tively recent times, even those who have not 
condemned plays and games have neverthe- 
less looked upon them as essentially useless, 
or at best as a relatively harmless way of oc- 
cupying children who are too young to be 
doing anything useful. All this is now re- 
versed. The plays of the young, since they 

1 See Elizabeth Harrison : A Study of Cliild Nature 
(Chicago Kindergarten College, 1902), and Herbert Spen- 
cer: Education: Intellectual, Moral, and Physical (Nev^ 
York, 1872). 



PUNISHMENT AND PLAY 143 

reveal the spontaneous interests, have become 
a clue to educational problems; and since 
spontaneous interest has become the leverage 
of the teacher in the education of the child, 
the conscious effort of teachers has been to 
make the work of the schoolroom somewhat 
like the work of the playground. There is no 
absolute dividing line between the two kinds 
of work. Nor is this all. For play itself 
turns out to be a first-class educational pro- 
cess. The play instinct is nature's way, and 
so God's way, of deveyoping body, mind and 
character. Quickness and accuracy of per- 
ception; co-ordination of the muscles, which 
puts the body at the prompt service of the 
mind ; rapidity of thought ; accuracy of judg- 
ment; promptness of decision; self-control; 
respect for others ; the habit of co-operation ; 
self-sacrifice for the good of a group— all 
these products of true education are called 
out in plays and games. Further, the play 
instinct varies with the different -species and 
with the two sexes, so that its specific forms 
prepare the individual for his specific func- 
tions. The plays of a lamb prepare for the 
activities of a grazing animal; those of a 
lion's whelp foretell the pursuit and killing 
of prey. The plays of a girl look forward to 



144 KDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

motherhood; those of a boy to protecting, 
building, acquiring. In short, play is a part 
of nature 's school. 
81. Relation of The relation of play to 

Play to Religious ,. . -, .- -, 

Education. religious education de- 

mands a specific word. Just 
as the gap between the school and play is be- 
ing filled up, so the home and the church 
should now at last awake to the divine sig- 
nificance of the play instinct and make use 
of it for the purpose of developing the spirit- 
ual nature. The opposition between the play 
spirit and the religious spirit is not real but 
only fancied; just as that between play and 
schooling in general. Through our ignorance 
we have put asunder that which God hath 
joined together. Here is the secret of much 
of our lack of power with young people. We 
teach children to think of their most free and 
spontaneous activities, their plays, as having 
no afifinity for religion, and then we wonder 
why religion does not seem more attractive to 
them as they grow toward maturity! We 
mask the joy and freedom of religion by our 
long faces, our perfunctory devotions, our 
whispers and reticences, and then we find it 
strange that young people are so inordinately 
fond of worldly pleasures! As late as the 



PUNISHMENT AND PLAY 146 

year 1900 a prominent Sunday-school leader 
insisted upon keeping up this paralysing dis- 
tinction. "It is wrong," he said, "to talk 
about the kindergarten of the Bible school. 
Wise primary workers are averse to turning 
any part of the Bible school into a kinder- 
garten because the thought of play should be 
kept for places other than God's house, and 
for times other than the Lord's day. The 
.^ . little ones should be taught reverence very 
"'^ early in life." As long as such notions pre- 
vail, we should expect children to exclude 
Grod from their plays, think of religion as 
unnatural, and either grow up indifferent to 
religion or else reserve their reverence for the 
Lord's day and the Lord's house. Unless we 
discover the unity of play Avith education in 
religion as well as with so-called secular edu- 
cation, we shall never secure control of the 
whole child or the whole youth for Christ. 
82. The Christian The practical problem is. 

Interpretation of . . , , j. j xT. 

Play^ m part, to extend the 

Christian spirit through all 
the games and plays of childhood and youth, 
and the play spirit through the instrumental- 
ities of religious education, so that the whole 
life shall be lived as in the sight of God and 
in friendship with Christ. If the thought of 



146 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

God or of Christ chills the joy of games and 
plays, that merely proves that we have mis- 
interpreted the divine to children. A child 
who cannot freely unbend in the presence of 
his earthly father or an elder brother is a 
witness against such a father or such a 
brother. There is imperfectly revealed 
fatherhood, and imperfectly revealed brother- 
hood. The fact that we have so represented 
the Heavenly Father and the great Elder 
Brother of us all shows how slow of heart we 
have been, how slightly we have grasped the 
principle of incarnation. God in Christ 
means God in childhood as well as in man- 
hood; God in childhood's plays, therefore, 
as truly as in manhood's labor and worship. 
In fact, the freedom of play is a normal ele- 
ment of life and a normal attitude toward 
life for adults as well as children. Bushnell 
says : ' ' Play is the symbol and interpreter of 
liberty, that is. Christian liberty. * * * 
Play wants no motive but play; and so true 
goodness, when it is ripe in the soul and is 
become a complete inspiration there, will ask 
no motive but to be good. Therefore God has 
purposely set the beginning of the natural 
life in a mood that foreshadows the last and 
highest chapter of immortal character." Thus 



PUNISHMENT AND PLAY 147 

play becomes " a natural interpreter of what 
is highest and last in the grand problem of 
•our life itself. "^ 

Holding this view of play, we should strive, 
not to make children like playless adults, but 
to make adults like playful children. 
Throughout education the play attitude of 
mind should be preserved as far as possible. 
After all, is it not right jolly to learn things, 
to have an occupation, to do something worth 
while ? Is it not fun to do right ? True, there 
are unavoidable crosses; there is weakness 
where we would have strength; there is wait- 
ing when we wish to act, action when we 
wish to rest; there are deprivation and sor- 
row, and always the demand for self-sacrifice. 
Yet Jesus made no mistake when he called 
the yoke easy and the burden light, and Paul 
was right when he called the law of Christ a 
law of liberty. For children and adults alike 
Christ is the great emancipator, the great re- 
storer of the play spirit. Through him there 
is rejoicing, even in tribulation ; through him 
the meanest duty becomes a divine mission; 
through him the human being for the first 
time clearly realises that he is a child of God, 
with a child's prerogatives. Why, then, are 

'Horace Bushnell : Christian Nurture (New York: 
Scribners), Part II, Ch. VI, pages 339 f. 



148 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MOEALS 

we SO sober in our daily occupations, so un- 
able to relax into the childlike state of mind ? 
Because we think too meanly of our life; be- 
cause of our narrow self-consciousness; be- 
cause the larger self is denied a chance for 
full utterance. If we would enter into the 
fulness of life we must become as little chil- 
dren, and we must remain so. Applying this 
principle to the education of children, we 
should strive to prevent even the semblance^ 
of a break between the playground, the fam- 
ily altar, and the church. 

83. Christ as This wiU necessitate such 

Playground. supervision of children's 

plays as will make Christ 
the master of the playground — the master, not 
the spy or the oppressor; the promoter, not 
the opponent of play. What a shame it is 
that he has been represented to children as 
mere restraint, a mere "don't," a negation, 
whereas he is come that children may have 
their own life and that they may have it 
abundantly. That means play, with its fun, 
its noise, its contests. The more of Christ 
there is in play, the more fun there is; for 
the things that Christ forbids, which center 
in undue self-love, are the very things that de- 
stroy play, while the things that he com- 



rUNISHMENT AND PLAY 149 

mands, which center in social or group ac- 
tivities, are the very things that keep play 
going at its highest. This does not mean that 
Christ would have goody-goody boys and 
girls. Boisterousness, struggle, conquest, the 
taking of risks and the facing of danger — all 
these are at some time proper and truly 
Christian. We must always remember that 
"is" and "is not" are not the only alterna- 
tives; there is also "becoming." The essen- 
tial question is never, Does this child fulfil 
the law of love? but rather. Is he advancing 
normally toward a mature realisation and 
fulfilment of it? 

The normal way for children to make this 
advance is to live out their childish selves in 
association with one another. They are to 
live, but they are also to live together. Their 
contests, even their quarrels, are of value. 
Quarrels among children are not to be in- 
terpreted as signs of a fall from virtue, but 
rather as thorns with which the child pricks 
himself in his efforts to pluck the rose of 
normal social existence. Childhood quarrels 
provide one with a set of experiences that en- 
able one to avoid quarreling later in life. 
When grown persons indulge wrath and 
envy and backbiting and clamoring, they de- 



150 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

scend from a plane that the child has not yet 
reached, a plane that his early social experi- 
ence helps him to reach. 

Thus an act which in an adult is bad is not 
necessarily so in a child. Christ comes to 
children's quarrels, not to condemn them, but 
so to illuminate them as to make them self- 
rebuking and self-annihilating. To suppress 
them by mere power is to sacrifice develop- 
ment. They are essentially self-destroying, 
and this is the very lesson that the child 
learns from them. The same may be said of 
children's anger. It is a stage of undevel- 
oped life. Anger must be experienced before 
character can become rugged. He who knows 
not anger knows not how to fight the wrong. 
So, also, of childhood greed and self-assertive- 
ness. These impulses, if allowed to grow 
without check, become in time an evil char- 
acter. But they should develop into strength 
of personality, power of resistance, power to 
do and to win in worthy causes. To make 
Christ master of the playground, then, means 
such wise and subtle supervision of play as 
helps childhood impulses gradually to inter- 
pret themselves through their own expression 
into the Christian philosophy of life. 



CHAPTER X 

REALITY AND SYMBOL AS MEANS OF EDUCATION 

!?• 7^1 Divine In our discussion of ap- 

Met'hod of i » « 

Educating the perception and of self-ac- 

^^^^' tivity we caught a glimpse 

of some practical applica- 
tions of a principle, already formulated in 
Chapter VI, concerning the superior educa- 
tional value of concrete realities and actual 
experiences as compared with that of words 
or other symbols. This principle now de- 
mands specific attention. If we ask ourselves 
by what method the divine education of the 
race from savagery to civilisation has pro- 
ceeded, we shall be struck at once with the 
fact that God seems to have hidden himself 
behind the visible and tangible environment of 
human life. The race has escaped from sav- 
agery through its own self-activity, namely, 
through the wrestlings of men with nature 
and with one another. Thus concrete things 
and visible persons have been the primary in- 
struments of man 's training. Out of the tus- 
sle with wild beasts, with the rigors of winter, 
with hostile tribes, with all the conditions of 



152 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 



physical existence, came quickened faculties, 
useful customs and instincts, and a stock of 
experience that was destined to unfold into 
science, literature, art, and polities. 

This is the case with morals and religion 
as well as with the other elements of civilisa- 
tion. In neither of these spheres was the race 
started into life equipped with ready-made 
ideas or formulas, or with any short-cut 
method of acquiring them. Moral and reli- 
gious ideas and feelings gradually unfolded 
themselves through what seems, from our 
point of view, like a haphazard, rough and 
tumble, and very unspiritual struggle to live. 
Yet the education of the race was actually be- 
ginning. Its method was, first the sensible, 
then the rational; first the concrete, then the 
abstract ; first the experience, then the symbol. 
This order will be found to hold at every stage 
of race education. That great body of sym- 
bols, the Bible, for example, came gradually 
into existence as the recorded expression of 
the growing religious experience oi the chosen 
people. It is not the source of that experi- 
ence, but a product of it, though each part of 
the Scriptures, once in existence, entered as 
a factor into the movement whence it sprung. 
Yet the mere symbol, of whatever kind it may 



REALITY AND SYMBOL IN EDUCATION 153 

be, and however useful in communicating the 
results of experience, can never quite take the 
place of the concrete fact. We recognise this 
principle when we say that preaching, in 
order to save the world, must be backed up by 
genuine Christian living. From reality to 
symbol, then, is a general principle of race 
education. 

85. From Thing to It is also a basic principle 

Symbol is the -.it.- n ■> 

Natural Order of ^^ the ducation of each 

the Mind. child. Not only do the 

senses develop in advance 
of the reflectve powers, so that the first 
knowledge to be acquired is sense-knowledge, 
but this order represents a general principle 
of mental acquisition and growth. Not that 
all realities are sensible things, but simply 
that realities, as recognised in some kind of 
experience, come first, and the name, the for- 
mula, the theory comes afterward. A baby in 
the act of exploring one hand with the other, 
or handling every possible thing ; a child who 
runs and jumps and climbs and tries to do 
whatever he sees anyone else doing; a boy 
who is possessed by an impulse to make bows 
and arrows, or toy wind mills; a youth who 
begins to hear the wide world whispering to 
him of a wider experience ; a geologist, break- 



154 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

ing a fragment from an exposed rock— all 
these illustrate the same great fact. The haby 
is laying up a stock of experiences which by 
and by he will learn to name. The child is 
learning nature's laws by bumping up against 
nature. The boy is expanding his insight by 
using upon things what insight he already 
has. The youth craves to get at the reality 
of life, and no mere telling him about life 
will suffice. In each of these cases the symbol, 
rule, or theory, when it comes, will have force 
and vitality in proportion to the felt reality 
of the experience for which it stands. 

86. Significance The contrast between the 

Laboratory and of o^'^er of nature and tradi- 
Manual Training, tional school methods is ob- 
vious enough. The tradi- 
tional school is an institution that undertakes 
to transfer the contents of a text-book to the 
memory of the pupil. Yet a text-book is a 
lifeless, external thing; it is not a god to be 
bowed down to; it is not even the thing that 
the child has to learn. What has to be 
learned is the fact or the truth. The relation 
of a book to a fact or truth is like that of a 
window to a landscape. The window isn't 
the landscape; it doesn't contain the land- 
scape ; it is merely an opening through which 



REALITY AND SYMBOL IN EDUCATION 135 

we may look for ourselves. Grammar, arith- 
metic, geography— these are not books, nor 
are they contained in books, and no pupil is 
really trained in them who does not resort 
to the same sources as the book-makers them- 
selves. The newer school-ideals, accordingly, 
aim to bring the pupil into immediate touch 
with the very things that the text-book talks 
about. Hence the rapid spread of laborato- 
ries and manual training. By such means 
the pupil not only secures opportunity for 
self-activity; he also comes at the symbol 
through the thing symbolised. He comes to 
understand a generalisation by actual dealing 
wuth some of the particulars upon which it 
is based. He proves few things, of course, 
and discovers less, but he becomes acquainted 
wdth the methods of discovery and of proof, 
and he acquires some experience of typical 
facts and processes. Laboratories and man- 
ual training are purposely classed together in 
this statement. Naturally, yet unfortunately, 
the public has not discriminated adequately 
between industrial training and manual train- 
ing. The one has in view the learning of a 
trade or art; the other broad general educa- 
tion. Manual training is not even, as its 
name indicates, a training of the hands alone 



156 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

or chiefly, but rather a training of the per- 
sonality through the use of the hands and 
the mind at the same time, 

87. Incomplete The general principle, 

Applications of ■\^. . .i. \. i 

the Principle. then, IS that the symbol 

(name, formula, rule, 
theory) should enter only when the pupil al- 
ready needs it in order to fix and formulate 
and generalise something with which he is 
already at least partially acquainted. This 
principle is easily misapplied. For example, 
the proper use of pictures is easily misunder- 
stood. A true picture is, indeed, one degree 
nearer concreteness than mere words, yet pic- 
tures themselves are at best symbols. They, 
as well as words, have to be interpreted by the 
child's own experience. "Mother," said a 
little boy, "don't men ever go to heaven?" 
"Why do you ask?" replied the mother. 
"Because," said the little investigator, "none 
of the angels I have seen pictures of have 
whiskers ! " It would be interesting to know 
what the gaudily colored pictures used weekly 
to illustrate the Sunday-school lesson in pri- 
mary departments really mean to little chil- 
dren, and especially how far they really illus- 
trate the lessons. 

Another imperfect application of the 



REALITY AND SYMBOL IN EDUCATION 157 

true principle is found in what used to be 
called "object lessons." For here the object 
placed before the child is commonly not the 
thing that is to be studied, but only a symbol 
for it, and often a very remote symbol, too. 
In the teaching of morals, physical analogues 
(a twig for the pliability of childhood, a tree 
for the fixation of maturity, etc.) may some- 
times be a helpful addition to mere words, but 
at the best they merely improve our symbols. 
Even when the very object that the child has 
to study is placed before him, object teaching 
does not always succeed. AVhen natural his- 
tory, for example, is taught merely by means 
of museum specimens, the object, being ex- 
hibited out of its natural setting, and with 
none of the motion and "go" of nature, is 
never fully real to the pupil. Museum speci- 
mens, taken by themselves, tend to become 
only another kind of symbol. For this reason 
the pupil is to be taken into the field, where 
he beholds the life and movement of things, 
and is drawn out to take part in it himself. 
Then comes the need of the symbol as a 
means of fixing, recalling, communicating 
what he has done and experienced. History, 
of course, has to be learned largely through 
analogues and symbols, yet now and then 



158 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

there is opportunity to exhibit some object 
actually connected with an historical event, 
and always our own institutions stand as mon- 
uments of the past. In general, dates, lists of 
kings, and similar abstract material should 
be withheld until they acquire meaning from 
something that already lives in the imagina- 
tion. The story, historical and geographical 
pictures, the making of maps and diagrams, 
or dramatic representations, should come first. 
Many an adult can recall how dry and fruit- 
less the study of history was until the read- 
ing of a biography or an historical romance, 
a visit to a battle field, the sight of an old 
flint-lock musket, or some similar event made 
history suddenly a living and moving reality. 
88. Defects of The application of this 

the Catechetical , . , . 

Method. principle IS perhaps more 

difficult in the teaching of 
moral and spiritual truth than anywhere else. 
For where shall the child experience the con- 
crete fact ? He can see and touch many of the 
things with which the state schools deal, but 
he has no similar sense-experience of God, 
or of Christ, or of duty. A large part of the 
task that will be undertaken in Part III con- 
sists in attempting to answer this question. 
Meantime we may well illustrate the prin- 



REALITY AND SYMBOL IN EDUCATION 159 

ciple by one or two specific examples drawn 
from the field of religious education. The 
most obvious one is the method of catechetics. 
The cathechetical instruction of the early 
church was in close relation to reality, for it 
was used as a means of preparing converts 
from heathenism for formal admission into 
the church. The convert already felt the new 
life as a fact of experience; he then went on 
through cathechetical study to formulate it 
and try to understand it. This was cate- 
chetics in its original form. The instruction 
of children by means of fixed questions and 
answers is an entirely different thing. For 
now the symbol is separate from the thing 
symbolised, and an effort is made to fill the 
child's memory with formulas the meaning of 
which he cannot know in any vital way. These 
formulas are expected to become useful by 
and by. The mind is supposed to be pre- 
empted by Christian truth and fortified 
against the assaults of doubt. But the mind 
is not really filled with truth. To communi- 
cate truth, as distinguished from symbols, im- 
plies assimilation of the truth through some 
experience ; it implies a vital, not mechanical, 
reaction of the mind. Mere mechanical cate- 
chising produces various results. Some 



160 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 



pupils merely shed the shower that falls upon 
them; they repeat the words and then for- 
get them. Others, because the need of self- 
expression is ignored, feel themselves re- 
pressed, and therefore they become cynical or 
sceptical. Still others, filling their memory 
with forms of doctrine, assume that they have 
the truth, and so they become dogmatic or 
priggish. The very first condition for the suc- 
cess of a catechism is that the pupil should 
need a formula in which to express and gen- 
eralise something that is already vital in his 
experience.^ 

89. Memorising The memorising of Scrip- 

*^ ''' " ** ture is most useful when it 

obeys the principle. First the reality, then the 
symbol. Forcing upon the child the memoris- 
ing of passages that lack the "tang" of reality 
to him may easily create prejudice against 
the whole Bible. The only safe plan, and the 
only one that is truly educative, is to see to it 
that the passage to be memorised conveys to 
the child a genuine meaning in which he has 
an interest of his own. Now, one of the best 
things about the form in which the Bible pre- 

* Several recent catechisms seek to conform to peda- 
gogical principles. See those by W. J. Mutch, New 
Haven, Conn. ; those by .1. L. Keedy, Lysander. N. Y. ; 
Doremiia Scudder's "Our Children for Christ" (Revell) ; 
W. E. McLennan's "The Lord's Supper (Eaton & Mains). 



REALITY AND SYMBOL IN EDUCATION 161 

sents truth to us is that it is so concrete. It 
is full of movement, and much of it has im- 
perishable value simply as literary art. It 
appeals at once to the imagination of a child 
and the taste of a man. Further, the contents 
of many parts of the Scriptures grow in 
meaning as we ourselves grow. Of course we 
have to wait for maturity before we realise 
anything like their full depth, but there is 
abundant reason why we should know them 
as soon as they can begin to be genuine nutri- 
ment. The Twenty-third Psalm has a real 
and natural application to childhood's inter- 
ests, but the application grows more and more 
profound with the moving years until old age 
beholds itself descending into the valley of 
deep darkness. The same is true of a large 
proportion of the Scripture passages that 
have endeared themselves to the hearts of 
men throughout the ages. They can be un- 
derstood by a child, though they cannot be 
fully understood until the measure of life 
has been filled to the brim. Happy the man 
whose memory is stored with truth in the 
forms of Biblical phraseology, for he has con- 
stant means of self-expression, and therefore 
of self-understanding. The mere possession 
of an appropriate symbol hastens the recogni- 



162 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

tion of deeper reality. But the symbol must 
be really possessed ; it must already be a sym- 
bol of something if its capacity for symbolis- 
ing is to develop. Clearly, then, such pas- 
sages as can have little or no meaning for a 
child should not be forcibly clamped upon his 
memory. Fortunately, near the end of child- 
hood and the beginning of adolescence there 
develops great capacity and liking for mem- 
orising. At this time no hardship is felt in 
conning anything that is significant in matter 
and pleasing in form. By this time, too, the 
range of interest and the depth of moral ap- 
preciation have begun greatly to increase- 
This, then, is a peculiarly favorable period 
for storing the mind with the greatest words. 
90. Some Cases Sense before sound ! 

might well be the motto of 
every parent and teacher who undertakes to 
assist a child to memorize. Sully tells of a 
child who offered the first petition of the 
Lord's Prayer in the form, "Harold be thy 
name!" Here the sound is mis-heard, and 
consequently sense is entirely lacking. In 
other cases both sound and sense are misun- 
derstood. A child upon returning home from 
Sunday school asked his mother, ' ' Mamma, 
why should children bathe their parents?" 



REALITY AND SYMBOL IN EDUCATION 163 

Upon inquiry as to why the question was 
asked, the- mother was informed that the 
pupils of the Sunday school had been taught 
this momentous command: "Children, hathe 
your parents in the Lord, for this is right ! ' ' 
Sometimes the words are understood, but the 
sense and application are distorted. Sully 
relates that one child, having heard the story 
of how the Good Samaritan poured oil into 
the wounds of the man who fell among thieves, 
understood that the Samaritan poured par- 
affin over the poor fellow !^ Another little 
boy who had recently heard the story of the 
creation of Eve came to his mother saying, 
"Mamma, I'm 'fraid I'm g:oing to have a 
wife, for there's a drefful pain in my side!" 
If we could only know what meaning the chil- 
dren find in words and sentences, what a rev- 
elation we should have ! 

91. Making the A notion has somehow 

"Application" in i i i .1 u 

Bible Teaching. gi'own up, probably through 
unconscious imitation of 
preaching, that the Bible is not really taught 
unless the "application" is stated. The bibli- 
cal passage is first unfolded, and then, out 
of the teacher's own mind, or out of the mind 

1 .Tames Sully: Studies of Childhood (New York, 
1900), page 184. "Harold be thy name" will be found 
on p. 185. 



tfi4 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

of some editor of Sunday-school helps, there 
is brought forth something more which is 
supposed to form a climax. The aim that in- 
spires this method is a true one, namely, the 
development of actual, present spiritual life 
in the pupil. But is the method adapted to 
the purpose in view? Life develops, not from 
symbol to experience, but from experience to 
symbol. What is actually done in this proc- 
ess of drawing out the "lesson" of the lesson 
is to increase the number of symbols without 
increasing the experience of reality. Gen- 
erally, too, the process consists in following 
a strong symbol by a weaker one. Why 
should the Bible have the supreme place in 
the spiritual culture of the young? Because 
morals and religion are there presented better 
than we can present them in any words that 
we can form. Its strength lies, in part, in its 
freedom from abstract formulas, its nearness 
to the concrete, its self-revealing application 
to our own selves. Why, then, should a 
teacher feel called upon to add another and 
a weaker symbol to those of the sacred writ- 
ings? 

Suppose, for instance, that a Sunday-school 
teacher draws out of the lesson for the day 
the proposition, "We should be kind to one 



REALITY AND SYMBOL IN EDUCATION 165 

another." This presupposes that the lesson 
of kindness is actually embedded in the scrip- 
ture passage. As soon as the pupil leaves the 
class, or even before, he is likely to be con- 
fronted with a concrete opportunity to be 
kind. What, now, has he gotten from the les- 
son that will induce him to be kind? The 
least effective of all that he has gotten is the 
teacher's formula; much more effective is the 
passage of Scripture with its concrete pic- 
ture ; most effective of all will be the concrete, 
scriptural kindness which the pupil has wit- 
nessed and experienced on the part of the 
teacher. The influence is in proportion to the 
concreteness of the material. 

This principle does not imply reticence re- 
garding spiritual truth, but rather that the 
teacher should teach the Bible so well that the 
pupil shall see for himself the spiritual truth 
therein. Again, the principle does not forbid 
making a direct appeal to the conscience of 
the pupil on any fitting occasion. A "fitting 
occasion, ' ' however, is one in which some con- 
crete reality— whether the teacher's person- 
ality, an historical incident, or the pupil's 
own experience— overflows the spoken word 
and makes it an instrument of reality.^ 

» Cf. Burton and Mathews : Principles and Ideals for 
the Sunday School (Chicago, 1903), pages 100, 101. 



166 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

92. Symbols But this is not the end of 

apart from ^-^^ matter. We must ask 

Reality Weaken 

Char&cter. ^ot merely which is the 

stronger incitement to kind- 
ness, but also what is the effect of using weak 
incitements. Anyone who has studied the 
young can answer this question. The weak- 
ness of the symbol tends to be attributed to 
the thing symbolised. The anti-climax of the 
teacher's remarks about kindness tend to 
weaken respect for this virtue. Kindness 
comes to be associated in thought with weak- 
ness, and so manliness comes to signify some 
amount of roughness or disregard for others. 
Parallel results follow from teaching any 
other duty or any spiritual privilege in this 
way. The separation of the symbol from the 
thing symbolised results in the separation of 
thought from action ; this implies action from 
impulse while principle looks on; but when 
principle becomes an onlooker instead of com- 
batant, then character is left to chance. This 
is true of docile pupils as well as of restless 
and intractable ones. The docile pupil is 
likely to be simply a two or more sided one 
who reserves a part of his self-expression for 
other occasions. Or he may be unnaturally 
passive and compliant. In either case the 



REALITY AND SYMBOL IN EDUCATION 167 

actual character fails to receive its proper 
nutriment. Character grows through reac- 
tions upon concrete facts and conditions. 

93. Development Specifically, what con- 

of Character j. ^ j. ^ j-a- a 

through Crete lacts and conditions? 

Self- Adjustment Where is the child or the 
to Community ,i . i i i i i- • 

l_ifg_ youth to behold religion m 

the concrete? What is it 
that is to stir him to action and awaken his 
consciousness of principles? In a word, the 
kingdom of God actualised in various forms 
of community life. The family is, or should 
be, the first form in which the kingdom con- 
fronts the child. Then come the public school 
and the Sunday school. In neither of these 
is the chief task that of imparting informa- 
tion, but that of maintaining sound commu- 
nity life and carrying forward appropriate 
community tasks. Just as far as genuine 
community life is maintained in either form 
of school, the principles of the kingdom are 
in actual operation. The same principle is 
found in other forms of human organisation, 
and finally in the church. Here is religion 
objectively realised, and to it th-s child has to 
adjust himself. Through them he is to dis- 
cover that he is a social being, that he has cer- 
tain duties, and that the ultimate meaning of 



168 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

life is found in that complete society in which 
God loves us, and we love him and one an- 
other.^ In a nutshell, then, the essential 
method whereby reality is to be put before 
symbol in religious education consists in plac- 
ing such a social environment about the child 
that his self-adjustments to it shall involve 
both good habits and growing spiritual in- 
sight. In such an environment the Bible or 
other s3rmbols of religious life receive living 
interpretation as, in turn, they illuminate the 
facts and lead the way to higher things. 

94. Necessity of Having laid much stress 

the Symbol. ,, , , 

upon the secondary place 

of the symbol as compared with the experi- 
ence that it registers, we must now remind 
ourselves that our principle is not merely that 
reality comes before symbol, but also that 
symbol comes after reality. One of the most 
important acquisitions of the human mind is 
language. The naming of a thing is, in fact, 
a part of the process of knowing it. The 
name points out the qualities and relations of 
a thing, and classifies it with other like things. 

> One night a little child who had been accustomed to 
use the prayer, "Now I lay me," requested permission to 
malse up a prayer of his own. Permission being given, 
he prayed as follows : "O God, isn't It nice to ride in 
the cable car ! Please send me a bicycle. Amen." 
Note the sense of fellowship, evidently a direct product 
of human fellowships. 



REALITY AND SYMBOL IN EDUCATION 169 

The name abides when the thing is absent ; it 
can be called up by our own act, and can then 
take the mental place of the thing itself; by 
means of it we can communicate with one an- 
other, and even adjust our conduct to facM 
that are distant or future. This is possibly 
one reason why some early peoples believed 
that to know the name of a thing is to possess 
power over the thing itself. To let the mem- 
bers of another tribe know the name of one's 
tribal god, or even the real name of one's self 
was looked upon as dangerous. We must, in- 
deed, put things first, but we must put sym- 
bols second. After a child has grasped an 
arithmetical or grammatical principle, the 
statement of it becomes a help in many ways. 
Definition helps clear thinking, and clear 
thinking helps toward wise self-control. The 
name, the rule, and finally the theoretical 
formula, all have a place in ethics and reli- 
gion. As religious training has in the past 
erred by putting symbol in the place of real- 
ity, so there is danger in our days of not reg- 
istering our moral and religious experience in 
any sufficient manner. Without definite reg- 
istering of ideas communication becomes in- 
definite, and education ends either in senti- 
mentality or in mechanical habit. In proper- 



170 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 



tion, then, as the child mind, through its own 
concrete life, grows in ability to understand 
the symbols that express the truth to us, these 
symbols should be imparted. 



CHAPTER XI 

PERSONAL AND SOCIAL FORCES IN EDUCATION 

95. Character is We have just concluded 

through that the chief factor in the 

Suggestion and development of character 
is found in the relations of 
the young to the various communities of 
which they are parts. Personality in its 
social aspects thus acquires first-class signifi- 
cance as an educational force. It is to be as- 
sumed, of course, that each community to 
which a child belongs, whether the family- 
community or any other, will prescribe some 
kind of rules to all its members, the children 
included, and that these rules will be en- 
forced under the principle of self-expression 
as explained in Chapter IX. But this for- 
mulated element in the child's personal and 
social relations is by no means the only, or 
even the most influential one. There is in ad- 
dition what goes under the name of "the in- 
fluence of personality," and also what we 
might call "the influence of social atmos- 
phere." 

The present chapter will attempt an analy- 



172 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

sis of these subtle influences. We cannot be- 
gin the analysis better than by a word con- 
cerning the psychological process by which 
they become effective. The central features 
of the process are called suggestion and imi- 
tation. The law of suggestion is that any 
idea of an act or function tends to produce 
that very act or function. For example, the 
sight of a highly polished surface suggests to 
us (very likely without our stopping to think 
about it at all) the pleasant "feel" of such a 
surface when the hand moves over it; conse- 
quently we tend (often without realising 
what we are doing) to stroke such surfaces. 
In the course of a minute or so I saw five 
persons thus "feel" the marble wainscoting 
as they moved down one of the corridors of 
the Chicago Public Library. Suggestion can 
come in un-numbered forms; it can come in 
the language of advice or persuasion; it can 
come in the acts which we see others perform ; 
it can come through our own inferences from 
"what we see or hear; even our own acts tend 
to repeat themselves. The last is self-imita- 
tion, and in general imitation operates 
through suggestion. Deliberate imitation is 
comparatively rare, while imitation of the sug- 
gestive order is universal and constant. One 



PERSONAL FORCES IN EDUCATION 173 

takes on the fashions or "fads" of the time, 
the manners of one's social group, even the 
language, tone of voice, and facial expression 
of those with whom one is constantly asso- 
ciated, and all without clearly intending to 
do so. 

A moment's consideration of such facts 
will show that this process is not a merely ex- 
ternal one. "We do not merely "take on" the 
external aspects of what we imitate, but the 
internal aspects also. We experience feelings 
appropriate to the acts performed, and much 
of this feeling apparently results from per- 
forming the act. If the people all about us 
on the street are walking fast, we quicken our 
pace, and presently we feel hurried. It is 
thus that mobs and panics exercise their mys- 
terious control over individuals. Now, chil- 
dren are the greatest imitators, and thereby 
they form not only external habits, but also 
habitual modes of feeling, thinking, and as- 
piring — in a word, character. 

96. The Influence Apart from all our inten- 

of Personality. .-0.1, j „ 

tions, then, and even 

against our intentions, personality propagates 
itself. More than anything else, education in 
its initial stages is the propagation of char- 
acter through imitation working by sugges- 



174 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

tion. In the long run, what the teacher or 
the parent gives to the young is just one's 
self, very little more and very little less. "What 
one is in both mental and bodily habit is 
transmitted either by means of method or in 
spite of it. A nervous teacher will have nerv- 
ous pupils ; a peevish or arbitrary parent will 
have peevish or arbitrary children. The child 
will adopt the political and religious opinions 
of parent and teacher without argument; he 
will accept their standard of right and wrong. 
Thus it is that a strong and wholesome per- 
sonality may counteract defective methods, 
while the best of methods never succeeds in 
the absence of such personality. Of course, the 
highest result is to be reached only when the 
best personal qualities are joined with right 
choice of material and the best methods of 
using it. 

97. "Condescend- The personal element in 

i^ip., .*° . teaching is what we really 

Unilaren and 

Youth. are. It is not something 

that can be put on when we 

are with the young and taken off when we are 

away from them. Anything merely put on 

tends to defeat its own aim. The young have 

sharp eyes and what they do not distinctly 

see they often feel. To put into the voice » 



PERSONAL FORCES IN EDUCATION 175 

tone, or into the face a look, or into our acts 
a manner that we do not really feel is to run 
great risk of creating a suspicion that we are 
not quite genuine. Who can measure the 
amount of repugnance toward the church that 
has been awakened by the professional tone 
that is often assumed by religious workers? 
The professional tone is a sign that a fence 
has been built around one's personality. It 
means that a man is giving to his fellows 
things or ideas, but not himself. How many 
times has a spontaneous laugh knitted to- 
gether teacher and pupil by revealing the real 
man or woman in the teacher ! The pupil dis- 
covers spiritual kinship between himself and 
the teacher who laughs with him, for the two 
partake of a common experience.^ This is a 
typical case, and it stands for the general 
truth that the positive influence of personal- 
ity grows out of the sharing of experience, 
whereby all the processes of suggestion, imi- 
tation, sympathy, and self-expression become 
free. 

On the other hand, a negative or repulsive 
influence of personality arises when one per- 

^ "Seldom should smiling, never laughing, have place 
In religious instruction," says A. Vinet. — Pastoral 
Theology (New York, 1856), page 234. To take this 
ground Is to lessen the human touch through which alone 
the best that Is In the teacher reaches the child, 



176 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

son seeks to influence or control another with- 
out sharing his actual experience. Thus of- 
fers of mere pity are often resented just when 
sympathy is most needed. We do not wish 
to be merely pitied, but we do long for com- 
panionship. A faithful dog that shares our 
bad fortune with us can comfort us more than 
a man who merely reaches an arm down to 
help us. The same principle appears in the 
vanity of giving alms without love, and of 
trying to do by means of money and institu- 
tions what only the sharing of life can ever 
accomplish. ' ' Come, let us live with our chil- 
dren," said Froebel. No educational machin- 
ery can ever take the place of this living with 
the young, this entrance as a sincere partner 
into their experience, and the corresponding 
admission of them as real partners into one's 
mature interests. 

98. Childlikeness But how can a mature 

in Men and . . i ^ ^c 

\f^omen. person return to a level or 

life that he has long left 
behind ? And how can a child be a real part- 
ner in mature interests? Must not the com- 
mon plane upon which maturity meets child- 
hood be simulated? The answer is that a 
normally developed manhood or womanhood 
retains something of childlikeness within it- 



PERSONAL FORCES IN EDUCATION 177 

self. That we lose the child-heart and the 
child-mind out of us results from false educa- 
tion and from our sin and folly. The grejrtest^ 
characters have ever retained the child wioiin 
themselves, so that the perennial wonder of 
the populace is that its heroes are so simple, 
so spontaneous, so much "like one of the fam- 
ily." The truly great man is nearer to the 
common people and nearer to childhood than 
those would-be great men who dry and shrink 
and stiffen in the heat of artificial ambitions. 
What we need, then, is not condescension to 
the young, but rather rediscovery of the per- 
ennial springs of our own childhood. Play, for 
example, should never cease to be a part of 
our daily routine, and even the simplest plays 
should retain a native interest for us. We 
would be better, happier, more efficient men 
if we took a larger part with children in tag, 
or hide-and-seek, or marbles and jackstones, 
or kite-flying, or ball playing; and, sharing 
thus in the experiences of the young, we 
should have a far larger influence over them. 

99. Letting the On the other hand, it is 

Young Share in ., , , i -i. j.\ „„ 

Mature Interests. POSSlble tO admit the yOUng 

at an early age to genuine 
participation in the occupations or daily 
duties of their elders. Children long for oppor- 



178 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

tunities to do things. They watch their elders 
at work and wish for some part to do. What 
a boon it is when some sympathetic person 
permits even a little co-operation. A little 
girl would rather have some part in the house- 
keeping than not ; a little boy is never happier 
than when the father permits him to fetch 
and carry, to handle tools, to feed or drive 
the domestic animals, provided, always, that 
such occupation brings real companionship 
with the parent in accomplishing something. 
Here is one point at which country boys have 
the advantage of city boys. In the country 
the family performs more kinds of service for 
itself, so that there is a larger variety of pos- 
sible occupations for the boy as well as his 
father. The first time that a farmer's boy is 
permitted to take a horse to the blacksmith 
shop all by himself is likely never to be for- 
gotten. The first time that any boy is trusted 
to carry a package of money or to perform 
some other act of real importance his sense of 
responsibility and of honor is likely to burst 
into sudden blossom. He feels himself to be 
a part of the real world, and to be bound by 
strong ties to his parents and their standards. 
Such touches of reality can begin very early in 
life, and they can be graded to fit the child's 



PERSONAL FORCES IN EDUCATION 179 

growing capacity. They develop the liabit of 
living a real life, that is, a life of social re- 
sponsibility as contrasted with mere caprice 
or mere impulse; and this habit of living in 
realities goes farther toward developing solid 
character than rivers of mere instruction and 
advice. Moral instruction, in fact, becomes 
significant only in proportion as it has some 
such background, or rather in proportion as 
it is an integral part of living in the realities 
of life. Knowing the right and doing the 
right need to be fused into one. 

Thus, after all, the one prime essential for 
moral and religious education is that the 
young should live a common life with moral 
and religious elders. A common life : this does 
not mean living under the same roof, or eat- 
ing from the same table, or receiving com- 
mands and advice; it means having experi- 
ences and occupations in common, so that the 
real self of each, with its actual interests, is 
revealed freely to the other. This law applies, 
too, not merely to the externals of conduct or 
to mere morals; it reaches to the inner re- 
cesses of the soul. A child who lives in such 
relations as these with elders who are vitally 
spiritual comes in the most natural way to 
include spirituality in his notion of real life ; 



180 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

he takes it for granted; it becomes his law, 
and he makes efforts to obey it just as spon- 
taneously as he makes etfort to win his games. 

100. Fellowship If we trace any character, 

the Starting Point ^ ■• t j^ -^ 

of Both Good and ^^^^ ^r bad, to Its sources, 
Evil Character. we always find it starting in 
fellowship. The young life 
comes into contact with a wholesome or un- 
wholesome personality, and catches its spirit 
as if by infection. From the idle gossip of 
neighbors to the revelry of a saloon, the en- 
tering wedge of evil is fellowship. Remove 
this element, and the remaining factors in 
temptation of many kinds would appear so 
gross as to lose much of their attractiveness, at 
least to one who is taking the first steps in evil. 
After a sinful habit of any kind is set up, to 
be sure, coarser and coarser motives suffice. 
But the point at which the first step is taken 
is not solicitation by any coarse motive in its 
native coarseness, but in the garb of good fel- 
lowship, conformity to custom, amiable com- 
pliance with the standards of other persons. 
In the pleasant atmosphere of fellowship, all 
the forces of imitation and suggestion work 
unimpeded upon an unformed character to 
give it the complexion of its surroundings. 
We do not become either good or evil, either 



PERSONAL FORCES IN EDUCATION 181 

religious or irreligious, merely by deliberate 
choice, and any plan of moral and religious 
education that depends for success primarily 
and chiefly upon such choices is sure to let go 
the golden opportunity. The great lever of 
good, as of evil, is fellowship, the sharing of 
life. 

101. The Mixed Theoretically the problem 

Environment of „ . , 

the Young, and ot moral and religious edu- 

oup Resulting cation is not particularly 

formidable. Keep the child 
in constant fellowship with Christian charac- 
ter and away from all other character, let in- 
struction keep pace with the growing powers, 
and the work is done. But the practical prob- 
lem is not as simple as this. For the actual 
environment of every child is mixed. In us 
who follow Christ the wheat and the chaff are 
not yet separated, and among the persons with 
whom the child is in touch many are not dis- 
ciples. We simply cannot shut up any child 
to an environment that is completely whole- 
some; we cannot shut out temptation and the 
liability of a fall. Even if we could compass 
such a plan, children subjected to it would 
not be prepared for life in a world like ours. 
They would not understand the world or their 
own place in it. Rightly understood, the child- 



182 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

hood of Jesus, his bringing up in a social en- 
vironment made up of both evil and good, is 
an essential feature of the incarnation. Terri- 
ble as the danger is, the very best thing for 
the child is that he should be subjected to the 
evil as well as the good influences of his social 
environment. Only so comes discrimination, 
strength of resistance, realisation of the 
world's need, practical adaptation, and the 
soldierly spirit in the contest for the kingdom 
of God. But, this being the case, the duty is 
upon us to make of religious and moral edu- 
cation a never-sleeping, never-pausing cam- 
paign. We are not merely to extend informa- 
tion and advice to the young; nay, we are to 
fight evil in the concrete side by side with the 
child. The chief feature of the schooling of 
his character is to be his participation in our 
work and in our fight to set up the kingdom 
of God in the world. 

The strategic position in the campaign of 
moral and religious education now becomes 
plain. It is the element of fellowship. We are 
to make wholesome fellowships — whether in 
the home, the school, the church, the college, 
or the neighborhood— so warm, so natural, so 
unremitting, so unreserved that every un- 
wholesome fellowship shall seem artificial and 



PERSONAL FORCES IN EDUCATION 183 

unattractive. This is the central position, but 
it is not all. For now we see that every 
social institution, custom, and sentiment has a 
bearing upon the growing character. For ex- 
ample, the non-enforcement of the laAVS, or the 
desultory and inconsistent enforcement of 
them, influences the character of the young 
directly. The most serious thing about all 
forms of tolerated wrong is that they train 
the young to low standards. In a word, then, 
the campaign for the religious education of 
the young is all one Avith the campaign for 
personal and social righteousness, and its pe- 
culiar part of the fight depends upon com- 
radeship and life-sharing between the older 
and the younger. 

102. The Public We have already touched 

EdtTcat^o^r in ^^^ merely upon direct per- 

M orals. sonal influences, but also 

upon what may be called 
the influence of the social atmosphere. A par- 
ticular instance df this kind is found in the 
relation of the public press to the formation 
of character. In the press public sentiment 
is both revealed and guided. Here the spirit 
of the times or of a party speaks directly to 
the young. Without traveling, without large 
acquaintance with men, without study, one is 



1S4 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

made to feel as others are feeling, to judge as 
others are judging, to desire what others are 
desiring. The enlargement of knowledge and 
the broadening of sympathy that have come 
through newspaper reading is a remarkable 
fact, and it is a blessing for which we can 
hardly be too thankful. The whole newspaper- 
reading world is fast coming to feel itself akin 
to all mankind. Yet the newspaper is capable 
of becoming a greater blessing still. It can 
do vastly more for childhood and youth than 
it is doing. To a considerable extent the press 
of today is training the young to morally ob- 
jectionable conceptions of life. For example, 
consider that, from the time that boys are 
able to read, one of their chief interests is in 
games, and then note the kind of food that 
the sporting pages of the daily papers pro- 
vide for this interest. Again, what impres- 
sion as to domestic life are boys and girls and 
young men and young women receiving from 
the representations of it that are constantly 
found in the daily press? What standards 
of citizenship, what attitude toward law, in 
short, what kind of life is fostered in the 
young by the reading of newspapers? It is 
worth asking whether newspaper men, in 
their effort to tell the news, do not habitually 



PERSONAL FORCES IN EDUCATION 185 



make prominent the less wholesome aspects of 
life, and whether; as a consequence, young and 
old are not mentally associating too much with 
questionable company. Then, too, newspa- 
pers, as they are at present conducted — that 
is, the ordinary daily papers— so present the 
news as to produce constant excitement in the 
reader. The result is an uneasy habit of 
mind, inability to be at home in one's own 
thoughts, feverish consciousness of the larger 
world. The outcome is not only unrest, but 
also overvaluation of publicity. We are ap- 
parently moving toward a time when little 
boys and little girls will scarcely regard a 
game of ball or a birthday party as really suc- 
cessful unless it is noticed in the public 
prints ! 
103. Capture the The power of the news- 

Priluppositions! P^per Hes less in what it 
positively asserts as to 
right and wrong than in what it takes for 
granted, what it tolerates without pro- 
test, what it habitually presents as inter- 
esting reading. All this tends to form 
the child's presumptions regarding life. It 
creates presuppositions or standards with ref- 
erence to which he judges himself and others. 
Now, this is the very way in which much of 



186 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

the best work of moral and religious educa- 
tion has to be done. That is, by means of our 
habitual assumptions and our habitual inter- 
ests we must capture the child's presupposi- 
tions in favor of true standards of value. In 
some ways we do this already with a fair de- 
gree of success. An American boy, a German 
boy, or an English boy grows up loyal to his 
fatherland without knowing how he becomes 
loyal. He breathes in pride of country from 
the social atmosphere. The sense of family 
loyalty and honor is successfully fostered in 
the same way; the child never knows any 
other view of his family. Thus also many of 
the everyday virtues are already taught. But 
this capturing of the presuppositions can ex- 
tend very much farther. The older persons 
with whom the young are in habitual con- 
tact should constantly reveal themselves not 
only as lovers of their family and their 
country, but also as lovers of God and Christ 
and humanity. The Christian idea of life 
need not be "dragged in" at all; it calls for 
no dry sermonising or moralising; it needs 
only to be talked about and acted upon as we 
talk and act with respect to family honor or 
patriotism. A child who is reared in this way 
easily counts himself as belonging to God and 



PERSONAL FORCES IN EDUCATION 187 

Christ from the start, just as he counts him- 
self an American or a member of his father's 
family. 
104. But Self- While it is true that per- 

Conscious Choice •,-. • <.<. j ^ ■ ,, ^ 

Must Come. sonality IS catching," and 

that much of the best work 
in character training is effected through imi- 
tation and suggestion, it is also true that 
character depends upon deliberate choices. 
We cannot rely upon the force of mere imita- 
tion or suggestion to carry anyone through 
the crises of moral and spiritual experience. 
There will arise the insistent question whether 
the habitual presupposition is correct, and al- 
so that ofttimes tragical question, what kind 
of success one shall choose to seek, what kind 
of self one shall choose to be. What, now, is 
the relation of the personal and social forces 
that we have described to the voluntary fac- 
tor that now enters into the problem? The 
problem of personal choices does not normally 
grow acute until the beginning or middle of 
adolescence, that is, not much before the years 
from twelve to fifteen, though it may arise in 
minor and gradually increasing degree before 
that age. This self-conscious element in moral 
and spiritual development should be permitted 
to awaken spontaneously. It should not be 



188 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

forced. It is a distinctly wholesome sign for 
a child up to the beginning of adolescence 
simply to assume that he is included with his 
parents within the kingdom of God, and to 
take no thought for decisions or experiences 
other than those directly involved in filling his 
proper place in the family, in the school, 
among his playmates, etc. During this period, 
therefore, the character is forming chiefly un- 
der the silent and unconscious influence of the 
personal and social environment. But, sud- 
denly or gradually, the child awakens into a 
self-conscious, self-acting, factor in the for- 
mation of his own character. 

105. The Will not There are three theories 

l;coS"pSEo1- as to what is now to be 
Authority. done for him. The first 

theory advises simple com- 
pulsion: Compel the youth to go to church, 
to read his Bible, to pray, to learn 
his catechism; repress his doubts by stern 
condemnation; in a word, choose "for him. 
This would, of course, violate the entire theory 
of development through free self-activity. The 
second theory advises that reliance be placed 
upon habit and standard already formed. The 
idea is to keep the youth going through the 
same motions as in childhood, and to prevent 



PERSONAL FORCES IN EDUCATION 189 

iudividual variations by the sheer force of 
training received while the personality was 
passively compliant. This is substantially the 
method in use by the Catholic church. It, 
too, fails to give scope to the principle of free 
self-activity. It thinks of the teaching au- 
thority as one that not merely feeds but also 
commands the intellect, even prescribing pains 
and penalties for variations. This is simply 
a modified form of the theory of compulsion, 
for to prevent the individual will from be- 
coming conscious of itself is to compel the 
personality just as truly as to crush a will that 
has once become self-conscious. 

106. How Prevent The third theory eneour- 

a Break with j^i i. n i i £ 

Childhood ages the full blossoming of 

Training? self-conscious thought and 

self-conscious will, even 
though this brings peril of false thinking and 
wrong choices. It declares that there is no 
other way in which the personality can be- 
come fully mature. The danger of this theory 
is that it shall rely too much upon a single 
phase of what ought to be a continuous proc- 
ess. Certainly we should not expect ado- 
lescence to be a completely new beginning; 
neither conversion nor any other process ever 
makes up for the neglect of early training. 



190 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

Our problem, then, is simply this : How can 
the relatively passive impressions of child- 
hood become a genuine factor in personal re- 
flection and choice except under the inertia of 
mere habit? The solution of the problem is 
to be found in providing the child with pre- 
suppositions that have the simplicity, the di- 
rectness, the appealing eloquence of the eter- 
nally and obviously real. What the youth 
most needs when he comes to the age of self- 
questioning is to feel that his life is already 
real, not artificial. He feels this with re- 
spect to affection between himself and his 
parents, and consequently, in spite of the 
chafings under parental authority, in spite of 
the acts of rebellion, that come into the life 
of most youths, very rarely do the youth's 
feelings really cut loose from the family. 
There remains a fundamental sense of re- 
ality. This is the heart of the problem of 
moral and religious training— to be real, to 
rely upon nothing artificial, to bring the eter- 
nal into the forms of a child's daily life, and 
into the forms of a child's daily thought. The 
youth will receive some help from reasoned 
instruction ; he will receive more from a con- 
tinuance of that sharing of life of which men- 
tion has been madej he will be greatly in- 



PERSONAL FORCES IN EDUCATION 191 

fluenced by the mere habits of his childhood ; 
but that which will hold him most firmly and 
certainly to conservative choices will be his 
immediate feeling of the naturalness and 
reality of his existing standards. 



PART II 
THE CHILD 



CHAPTER XII 

THE RELIGIOUS IMPULSE 

107. Connection At this point a new divi- 

between Parts I „ i • , i • 

and II. sion 01 our subject begins. 

Thus far we have been seek- 
ing to obtain a wide, perspective view of the 
factors, processes, and fundamental presuppo- 
sitions of religious and moral education. The 
position that we have reached is, in brief, this : 
That the function of education is to assist 
immature human beings to attain their proper 
destiny; that the proper destiny of men is 
prefigured and partly provided for in the 
structure of the mind; that man's mental 
structure is not only ethical (and so demands 
unity with his fellow men), but also religious 
(and so demands union with God) ; that this 
religious nature is an expression of the imme- 
diate presence of God in every human mind; 
that God himself is therefore the prime mover 
in all true education ; that the highest outward 
stimulus for the religious nature is God re- 
vealed in Christ, so that God educates his 
children for union with himself through 
Christ ; that the essential agency in education 



106 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

is never things or ideas, but persons, and that 
the essential method of education is the shar- 
ing of life between a higher and a lower per- 
son whereby the principle of incarnation is 
carried forward in each new generation ; that 
education is therefore a whole of which in- 
struction is only a part; that the essential 
process is the self-active, and therefore free, 
expression of the child's personality; that the 
method of education is not to force or press 
something upon the personality, but to pro- 
vide fitting material for the spontaneous ex- 
pression of its higher self; that education de- 
pends, therefore, upon the child's spontaneous 
interests, and is to adapt itself to the various 
stages of the child's development ; finally, that 
the natural line of moral and spiritual prog- 
ress runs through the various social groups 
with which the child is in fellowship up to 
the supreme fellowship with G-od. 

We thus obtain a point of view from which 
to organize and to judge the vast mass of facts 
and institutions that have to do with moral 
and religious training. Our next task will 
be to secure as clear an idea as present knowl- 
edge permits of the normal order and method 
of the child's moral and spiritual develop- 
ment. 



THE RELIGIOUS IMPULSE 197 

We already have the idea that G-od works 
within the child in what we call his reli- 
gious nature, and upon him through his 
environment, particularly his environment of 
persons, but this is only a general scheme, the 
details of which are yet to be filled in. We 
begin with a more detailed study of that with- 
in the child which religious education is called 
upon to develop, namely, the religious im- 
pulse. 

108. The Char- The science of religion, as 

acter of i i -i . j 

Primitive ^^ have already noted, 

Religion. shows that religion is uni- 

versal, and that it springs 
from an impulse that is native to the human 
mind. But the science of religion has occu- 
pied itself almost altogether with the adult 
consciousness. As a result, the character and 
place of the religious impulse in child-con- 
sciousness remains, for the most part, yet to be 
worked out. In the present chapter an at- 
tempt will be made to show the continuity be- 
tween this impulse in adults and in children, 
and in subsequent chapters of Part II the 
stages and methods of its development will be 
discussed. 

We must begin by asking what is meant 
by the religious impulse. If we turn for an 



198 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

answer to primitive tribes, this is the sight 
that meets our eyes: Men live together in 
small groups or tribes of which the tie is com- 
munity of blood. The prevalent interests are 
food-getting, fighting other tribes, and marry- 
ing. The universal view of nature is animism, 
or the belief that all objects have the same 
kind of life that the savage feels in himself. 
Natural, objects that smite the attention, or 
that seem to control the food-supply and other 
conditions of life, are feared, placated, and 
venerated. Dreams and visions lead to the 
belief that there is a soul separable from the 
body, and that this part of one's ancestors 
survives death. The honor paid to such an- 
cestral spirits becomes ancestor worship. The 
total result is many gods, whose character and 
conduct are a reflection of the character and 
conduct of the worshipers.^ Where in all this, 
one may well ask, is there anything cognate to 
our own ethical and spiritual ideals? 

109. General Before seeking a direct 

Nature of the , ,, • 

Religious Impulse, answer to this question, it IS 

well to notice that much 
more may be involved or implied in an act or 
a state of consciousness than the subject of 

* A brief and luminous discussion of primitive religion 
may be found 'n Part I of A. Menzies : History of 
Religion (New Yorii, 1903). 



THE RELIGIOUS IMPULSE 199 

it realises. A character in one of Moliere's 
plays was greatly surprised to find out that 
he had been using nouns and verbs all his 
life without knowing it ! Just so, long before 
we know the principles of logic, we employ 
them to test our own and others' thought. 
The same is true of the principles of ethics 
and aesthetics. After the act has been done, 
and especially after a mode of action has be- 
come well developed, science and philosophy 
begin to inquire what is really involved there- 
in. Our present question concerning savage 
religion, then, is not so much, What does the 
savage himself think about his religion? as 
What inner principle is actually at work 
within it? 

A good evidence of the necessity of this 
distinction is found in the discussion whether 
primitive religion is monotheistic. It is reason- 
ably certain that the gods of any savage tribe 
do not all stand upon the same level, and in 
some tribes there hovers in the background 
of thought a being so much like a single, orig- 
inal god as to cause some students to believe 
that monotheism was the original religion of 
all mankind. Yet it is doubtful whether any 
primitive or approximately primitive tribe 
could without prolonged training really grasp 



200 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

the idea of one only God. Primitive man 
sees and hears his gods just as he sees and 
hears his fellow men, and the evidence for 
many gods is to him just like that for many 
men. Nevertheless a tendency toward unity 
is there. It is native to the human mind. 
Just as the social instinct led on from tribal to 
national organisation, so the religious impulse 
led toward the subordination of some gods to 
others ; and just as the national consciousness 
even in our day is broadening out into a con- 
sciousness of humanity, so there could be no 
final rest in religious development short of 
monotheism. The significance of this discus- 
sion for our present purpose will appear as we 
proceed. We shall see that the educator needs 
to know both how the child himself thinks and 
feels, and also what inner principle or tend- 
ency is there at work. 

110. Impulse to Religion exists at all be- 

Unification of r. i ^i i 

One's Self and cause men find themselves 

One's World. ajj(j their world standing 

over against each other in 
an antithesis, even opposition, that needs to be 
resolved. To strive to reach a thought that 
shall include the self and the world is to begin 
to philosophise. But before the philosophic 
impulse becomes aware of itself, men must 



THE RELIGIOUS IMPULSE 201 

^nd a way to live in and with their world so 
that human ends may be attained. Thus it is 
that in nature, or above nature, they seek for 
a power, or for powers, that take an interest 
in human well being. This involves the idea 
of something greater and, in some sense, bet- 
ter, than has been actually experienced. That 
is, it involves the notion of an ideal world 
over against or alongside of the real world. 
This ideal may be only slightly in advance of 
the actual life of the tribe; it may lack what 
we should recognise among ourselves as eth- 
ical quality ; yet it is to the savage a superior 
thing, a higher point of view. It expresses a 
certain divine discontent that spurs men on to 
seek and find an ever higher unity of them- 
selves and their world. Moreover, the opposi- 
tion that religion seeks to solve is within man 
as well as between him and nature. Man 
never regards his present state as properly 
final; self-judgment pursues him, and self- 
judgment moves upward as fast as one's at- 
tainments increase. The religious impulse is 
thus toward the progressive unification of the 
man with himself, his fellows, natura, and all 
that is. It is man's effort to be at home in his 
world and with himself.^ 

* This is, of course, only a description of the religious 
Impulse. The explanation of it would require a reference 



202 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

111. Four Factors To be more specific, the 
Involved. ,. . , , . 

religious impulse contains 

the following factors : 

First, a more or less clear realisation that 
we are limited and dependent. Our depend- 
ent relation to visible things is first recog- 
nised, but both the idea and the feeling of 
dependence tend to push backward beyond all 
things that are themselves dependent to their 
ultimate ground. Thus, implicitly at first, and 
later explicitly, the religious impulse contains 
what Schleiermacher called the sense of abso- 
lute dependence, and so a sense of the ultimate 
unity of one's self and one's world. 

Second, human wants always outrun their 
supply. It is an ultimate fact of our consti- 
tution that we can always think more, and 
that desire follows the thought. How much 
gratification of the senses does it take to sat- 
isfy a man ? How much wealth, power, knowl- 
edge, honor, afi'ection? How much of any 
kind of good whatsoever? A man who is so 
satisfied with what he has and is as not to 
want to attain to something more we set down 
at once as abnormal; he is diseased in body, 
mind, or character. Buddhism, recognising 

to the Logos who lighteneth every man. Men feel after 
God if haply they may find him, yet all the while It Is 
God himself who inspires the search. 



THE RELIGIOUS IMPULSE 203 

the fact that to be conscious is to desire, con- 
cludes that complete satisfaction can be had 
only in unconsciousness. But this is a 
contradiction, for a satisfaction of which no 
one is conscious is not satisfaction at all. It 
is evident, then, that the self-realisation that 
men seek is, implicitly or explicitly, a progress 
to which no limits can be assigned. This im- 
plies an assumption that man's essential self 
is an ideal self, his world an ideal world which 
presides over the so-called real world, and 
that this ideal world is unitary and all-en- 
compassing. 

Third, the ideal world and the ideal self 
here implied are spontaneously taken as the 
truly real self and the truly real world pri- 
marily because of the strength of our felt 
wants. Imagination, hope, expectation, rea- 
son, all do service to this inner propulsion. 
We believe in God primarily because we need 
God. This does not mean that the ideals by 
which individuals and societies live are first 
abstractly conceived and later believed to be 
real. Just the reverse; they are at first con- 
crete beings whom early man believes that he 
actually beholds with his eyes. It has taken a 
long history and a considerable amount of ab- 
stract thought to separate between our ideals 



204 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

and our belief in their reality so as to be able 
to ask whether the gods actually exist. Even 
now, when this question has been clearly 
asked, the immediate demand for ideal good is 
more influential than all reasoning in forming 
our religious beliefs. 

Fourth, the specific qualities of these ideal 
beings or, as it comes to pass, this ideal being, 
are derived from our human experiences. "We 
could not understand any kind of superiority 
that is not an extension of something that has 
at least partially appeared within us. All 
gods are conceived anthropomorphically ; they 
are idealised men. The quality that is ideal- 
ised may be power, or jealousy for the tribe, 
or fatherliness, or a special interest like agri- 
culture or war, but it is always human. Chris- 
tianity puts its approval upon this principle 
by declaring that in a complete human life we 
have not only the highest but also an adequate 
revelation of Grod, 

112. The Religious A WOrd or tWO will nOW 

Impulse in the , ., .. . , 

Child, reveal the continuity be- 

tween the religious impulse 
of adults and of children. We have seen that 
this impulse, in its most general aspect, is an 
outgoing after unity between the self and its 
world. A new-born infant has, of course, no 



THE RELIGIOUS IMPULSE 205 

definite idea of either its self or its world. Yet 
the process of securing these ideas begins at 
once, if, indeed, it did not begin before birth. 
He acquires both ideas chiefly through the 
active putting forth of his powers. The im- 
pulsive movements of arms and legs, for ex- 
ample, are early steps in what, if it were in- 
tentionally done, might be described as an ex- 
pedition of exploration and discovery. Each 
new experience of the world is likewise a new 
revelation of the self. Further, in and through 
these experiences runs demand of one sort and 
another — for food, for activity, for the satis- 
faction of curiosity, for companionship, and 
so on. Very soon all three factors, a world, a 
self, and a demand, become dimly explicit, as 
they have been implicit from the start. And 
not only does the child differentiate himself 
from objects and make demands upon them, 
but also, through memory, expectation, and 
disappointed hopes, he begins to construct an 
ideal world alongside the world of actual ex- 
perience. For a long time the ideal is exceed- 
ingly crude, and the feelings accompanying 
it lack the depth of what Ave are accustomed 
to call spiritual. But what if the baby's ideal 
world is made up of imaginary foods and toys 
and beings subject to his whims? His situa- 



206 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

tion is not worse than that of early man, and 
the same idealising principle is at work in both 
eases. In both cases that which is natural 
comes first, and then that which is spiritual. 
Only large experience of life can reveal to an 
individual or to the race what is the meaning 
of the struggle to live, and to live well. The re- 
ligious principle is at work, in fact, in all that 
goes to make up human experience. The very 
first impressions that the child gets of his 
world, his first glimmering sense of self, his 
earliest sense of need, all these begin to form 
his view of the world and his attitude toward 
life. In a word, the personal interpretation 
of experience advances step by step with ex- 
perience itself. 
113. When This enables us to answer 

Should Education ,, i- ^i, i. • 

in Religion ^^^ question that IS somc- 

Begin? times asked, When should 

religious training begin ? 
Some persons would begin it as soon as lan- 
guage is acquired; others oppose all religious 
training of the young on the ground that re- 
ligion should be a matter of deliberate and 
rational choice, which is not possible before 
manhood is reached. Both these views rest on 
two false assumptions. The first is the intel- 
lectualist view of man, which makes life grow 



THE RELIGIOUS IMPULSE 207 

out of knowledge rather than knowledge out 
of life. The other is the notion that training 
with respect to religion can be postponed to 
some particular period of life. Not for a 
single year does the mind remain neutral or 
blank with reference to the interpretation of 
life. Impressions are already leading to re- 
actions of both an emotional and a motor sort, 
and these reactions are already forming into 
habits. To such habits there is also an in- 
tellectual side, or the meaning, more or less 
articulate, which the world and life are be- 
ginning to have. Very early, too, the child 
witnesses specific religious phenomena. We 
cannot hide from him our churches, our sa- 
cred books, our worship. The real question, 
then, is never. When shall his religious train- 
ing begin? for it really begins with the be- 
ginning of experience, and it goes forward 
with experience. The real question is, What 
kind shall it be ? Shall it be positive or nega- 
tive, symmetrical or distorted, repressive or 
emancipating? 



CHAPTER XIII 

HOW THE IMPULSE DEVELOPS 

114. General The first beginning of the 

Direction of ,. . , , , . 

Development. religious development in 

both the race and the in- 
dividual is exceedingly humble. Apparently 
there is just a jumble of likes and dislikes, 
desires and efforts, all directed to particular 
visible things, and all having their immedi- 
ate reference to physical needs. The ideal 
and unifying element of the religious im- 
pulse is not yet conscious of itself, but blind 
and unformed. Such is the beginning; what 
now is the goal, and how shall development 
be recognised? An impulse develops when 
the range or depth of its control increases, 
when the activities to which it leads become 
a habit, and when the impulse itself rises 
from the level of mere impulse to that of a 
principle rationally approved and deliber- 
ately adopted as a method of life. 

The goal of religious development includes 
all these, not merely a part of them. Ra- 



now THE IMPULSE DEVELOPS 209 

tional approval of religion or of Christianity 
is not enough, nor even deliberate choice 
thereof. How often has all this failed to is- 
sue in steady religious living. On the other 
hand, mere habit in the absence of rational 
reflection tends to become mechanical, and ul- 
timately to hinder growth. Again, there may 
be wide range of religious interest, but shal- 
lowness, as, on the other hand, there may be 
intensity and depth, but narrowness. Breadth, 
depth, habit, insight, deliberate choice— all 
are to be aimed at. This follows not only 
from our observation of incomplete religious 
characters, but also from the nature of the 
religious impulse. Religion demands com- 
plete unity of life. It reaches out to every- 
thing, and down to the bottom of everything; 
it includes our whole mental equipment and 
activity, whether of thought, of emotion, or of 
will. Stating this in the concrete terms of the 
Christian view of life, we may say that the 
outcome to be looked for in the religious train- 
ing of the young is that, through both habit 
and choice, the life should be completely con- 
trolled by Jesus' principle of love to God and 
man, and that one should see and feel that 
this principle gives to life its meaning and 
value. 



210 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

115. Internal and The primary factor in 

External Factors. i j i . • 

any such development is 
the child's own impulse, which we have 
already agreed to regard as the utterance 
of the Divine Spirit within him. But, 
left to itself, this impulse will no more grow 
than will a seed that is deprived of moisture. 
It is ordained that man should depend upon 
man, and that the revelation of God to men 
should come through the interactions of men 
with one another. If an American child be 
reared from earliest infancy by savages, he 
grows up savage, not civilised; if he should 
grow up among wild beasts he would fall 
short of the knowledge, the morals, and the 
religion even of savages. The importance of 
the external factor in education, then, is meas- 
ured by nothing less than the distance be- 
tween what children in a Christian environ- 
ment actually become, and what they would 
become if they grew up in isolation from hu- 
manity. Not, indeed, that education bestows 
all this, but rather that it furnishes essential 
conditions for the growth of the native im- 
pulse. God's way of making men is through 
men. It is civilisation that makes children 
civilised ; it is existing religion that makes 
children grow in religion. The only qualifica- 



HOW THE IMPULSE DEVELOPS 211 

tion that need be made to this statement grows 
out of the fact that civilisation itself proceeds 
in large measure from the religious impulse. 
Yet civilisation is of slow growth precisely 
because each individual of any generation is 
made what he is chiefly by the other individ- 
uals who surround him. An individual may 
be in advance of his times, yet only within 
limits. The greatest leader in any age is yet 
a product of his age. Thus, while the re- 
ligious impulse is an original endowment of 
each of us, and while an individual may sur- 
pass the limits of his training, nevertheless, 
each individual owes his general religious de- 
velopment to the influences of the community 
in which he is raised. 

116. The Theory What and how much can 

of Recapitulation. , t „ i -i i - 

be done for a child at any 
period of growth, however, depends upon in- 
ternal factors. The religious impulse has laws 
of its own. One of these laws is found m the 
general parallel between the development of 
the child and the history of the race. As the 
human body before birth passes through a se- 
ries of forms that correspond in the main to 
ascending embryonic forms of animal life m 
general, so, after birth, the mind progresses 
toward maturity through stages that corre- 



212 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 



spond roughly to the stages of human history 
in the large. In a certain modified sense, the 
child is first a savage, then a barbarian, and 
finally a civilised being.^ This is called the 
theory of the recapitulation of racial history 
by the individual. Its general correctness 
there appears to be no good reason for doubt- 
ing. The fact was noted generations ago, and 
it was clearly stated by some of the great 
educators, notably Froebel. The discoveries 
of biology in the last half century have served 
to confirm it, and to call renewed attention to 
it on the part of educators. The question 
naturally arises whether we have not here a 
clue to the natural order of child-development, 
and also a principle for the selection of ma- 
terial. 

117. Its Contribu- This theory certainly 
tion to Education. ^ -, 

helps us to secure perspec- 
tive with reference to the phenomena of child 
life. We are reminded that "the child" is not 
a being having fixed qualities, but one that 
is continually outgrowing itself. We are bet- 
ter able to judge what is normal and what 
abnormal at any period. We learn that the 
child naturally outgrows many traits that we 

^ See articles by Van Liew and others in the first and 
second year books of the Ilerbart Society (Chicago- 
University of Chicago Press). 



HOW THE IMPULSE DEVELOPS 213 



should not wish to have perpetuated. We 
cease to measure his conduct at one period 
by the standards of a later period. We learn 
to tolerate and even approve much that our 
forefathers, comparing children's conduct 
with adult standards, felt constrained to con- 
demn. A striking example of this change is 
the new attitude toward the fights of little 
boys. Many, probably most, students of ped- 
agogy to-day look upon such fights as within 
limits an expression of a normal and proper 
impulse. Again, the theory of recapitulation 
enables us to appreciate as never before cer- 
tain spontaneous interests of children and 
youth. We find a new meaning, for example, 
in boys' "gangs" when we discover how close- 
ly they resemble the tribal form of human or- 
ganisation. Similarly, the temporarily ab- 
sorbing interest in exploration, hunting, or 
mimic war at certain ages becomes illumi- 
nated. 

118. Limits of its Qn the Other hand, how- 
ever, any effort to deduce a 
system of religious education from the theory 
of recapitulation is fatally short-sighted. It 
assumes that the internal factor in develop- 
ment is practically self-sufficient, and it con- 
ceives this factor as a mere push from be- 



214 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

hind, an impetus which the individual receives 
from the past of the race. Now and then an 
educator appears to be chiefly anxious that 
the process of recapitulation should have full 
swing; that the child should be a complete 
savage, then a complete barbarian, and that 
natural instinct should bear complete sway. 
In this way, it is believed, he will most surely 
attain to a high civilisation in the end. This 
is not altogether untrue, but it is one-sided. 
The racial push from behind never enabled 
a child to attain to civilisation in an environ- 
ment of beasts or savages. How far the child 
shall go in the process of recapitulation de- 
pends chiefly upon the kind of environment 
in which he is placed. Further, a high en- 
vironment does not first become effective after 
the child has passed through earlier stages of 
culture; it is effective from the beginning. 
For the whole life of a civilised child, after 
earliest infancy, is different from that of a 
savage child. The two start at the same point, 
but the contrasting environments quickly 
produce great differences in development. 

119. A Case in Por an example, we may 

Point. -, o ^ 

compare the acts and feel- 
ings connected with eating on the part of an 
American child of five years and a savage 



HOW THE IMPULSE DEVELOPS 215 

child of equal age. The savage child grabs 
a morsel in his hand, and devours it much as 
our cats and dogs devour the food that we 
throw to them. His manners are in no ap- 
preciable degree socialised, his person is 
filthy, and he has no desire to have it other- 
wise. His feelings are as coarse as his acts. 
Now, it may well be that the civilised child's 
feelings have not kept perfect pace with the 
imitative process by which he has acquired 
some refinement of manners, yet, on the»whole, 
his feelings as well as his conduct are already 
largely civilised. He dislikes filth, he has 
a positive appreciation of order, and he ac- 
tually shares in the family spirit of mutual 
regard one for another. All this has been 
attained, moreover, without undue pressure 
from the parents. He finds at least as full 
self-expression in the neatness, order, and 
good manners of the family table as the sav- 
age child does in his own uncouth mode of 
eating a meal. Recapitulation, then, does not 
imply, that each child reproduces the stages 
of human history, or that he must wait, as 
the race did, for any special degree of fitness 
before he is introduced to the higher forms 
of life. 



il6 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 



120. What is a The fact is that, from the 

Childhood? Start, little by little, chil- 

dren assimilate the highest 
elements of their environment. They do it nat- 
urally, too, without forcing. To suppose that 
the natural child is the child as he would be 
in the absence of all influence from our adult 
convictions as to what is true and good, is to 
substitute for concrete children a mere ab- 
straction. What is natural to childhood is 
revealed, not by what happens in the absence 
of food, but in the presence of abundant food. 
If recapitulation were the sole basis of reli- 
gious nurture, we should be obliged deliber- 
ately to withhold ourselves from children in 
order that their environment might be meagre 
enough to fit their stage of culture. But the 
truth is that, if forcing and pressure be 
avoided, a child who is in contact Avith 
mature life develops with perfect naturalness 
while constantly absorbing elements of the 
higher culture. 

Yet the fact of recapitulation remains as a 
background of the whole process. The child's 
spontaneous interest will not extend equally 
to all parts of the higher life with which he 
is in contact, nor will he assimilate any part 
of it completely until he reaches maturity. 



HOW THE IMPULSE DEVELOPS 211 

For example he will be attracted at one 
period to heroism and self-sacrifice in the 
form of -what is called physical courage, at 
another in the form of philanthropies. At 
both periods, however, he may be under the 
positive influence of civilised and even Chris- 
tian ideals. 

121. The Absorb- In this way the religious 

ent Power of . , , . , 

Childhood. impulse may have a truly 

Christian character through 
all stages of its development. It acquires this 
character, not by first knowing and then do- 
ing, but by first doing and then knowing. It 
begins with habits which at first mean a little, 
but later a great deal, and so there is carried 
forward what has been called the progressive 
re-interpretation of experience. For example, 
under the good old custom of family worship, 
the whole family engaged in the same reli- 
gious exercise. Certainly this exercise had a 
different meaning for each member. To old 
age, already catching glimpses of the deep- 
shadowed valley, the Scripture lesson and the 
prayer meant one thing ; to middle age, bear- 
ing the heat and burden of the day, another; 
to youth, with its golden dreams, still another. 
Different needs, different feelings, different 
kinds of strength centered around the same 



218 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

act of worship. Nor did the adaptation end 
here, for the little child put his own meaning 
into family prayer, just as the other members 
of the family did. To him it was not artificial 
unless it was perfunctory— and so artificial— 
to his elders also. The child feels reality 
where his elders feel it, though he feels it 
differently. When just a little thought is 
taken to adapt idea and phraseology in fam- 
ily worship to the child, his participation 
therein is full and real; the exercise then 
grows in meaning with the growth of his ex- 
perience, and so it remains an educational 
force through all stages of growth. 

122. Religious Recapitulation, then, may 

Development of , , , ■_,, . r,- u 

Race and of ^^^^ place withm a high 

Child Compared. religion, and not merely as 
a preliminary to it. Here 
we have an essential contrast between the 
religious development of the child and that 
of the race. The religion of the race began 
with nature-worship and ghost-worship ad- 
dressed to many gods, and in only the faintest 
degree was it ethical. Only through long 
struggle did the gods become clear embodi- 
ments of moral ideals, and only here and 
there was monotheism attained at all. Now, 
it is true that children are at first animists; 



HOW THE IMPULSE DEVELOPS 219 

they interpret all nature by means of what 
they feel in themselves. It is also true that in 
very early life hob-goblins are easily believed 
in. Between these beliefs and the religious 
beliefs absorbed from elders there is, of 
course, no absolute dividing line. Animistic 
ideas are freely used in the interpretation of 
religion. A little girl explained thunder as 
"God rolling barrels up in heaven." Other 
children have thought of God as a carpenter, 
a juggler, a preternaturally big man, and so 
on.^ I believe it was John Fiske who, in 
childhood, imagined God as an aged book- 
keeper leaning over his desk up in the sky 
and looking down to see how little children 
conduct themselves in order that he might 
record all their demerits. 

But, for all that, in no strict sense do such 
children pass through a period of nature- 
worship or ghost- worship. For, first, chil- 
dren's sense of dependence is directed chiefly 
to the parents rather than to nature or to 
imaginary beings. The motives which made 
early men worship as they did centered large- 
ly in anxiety regarding the food supply and 
protection from the rigors of nature, from 

1 Sully gives an entertaining list of sucb ideas. See 
James Sully: Studies of Childhood (New York, 1900), 
i pages 120-132, and 506-513. 



220 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

wild beasts, and from hostile tribes. This 
anxiety was communicated from parent to 
child. But in modern civilised life these prob- 
lems have been practically solved. The pa- 
rent is no longer anxious, for he has an ade- 
quate supply, and so he takes the place in 
the child-mind that nature-gods occupied in 
the primitive mind. In the second place, the 
environment of the child-mind of to-day is 
profoundly different from that of primitive 
man. We rightly speak of early man as being 
in a condition of childhood. This implies that 
the mind of each primitive child grew up 
among childish minds — minds that merely 
reinforced a child's spontaneous notions of 
nature. Thus the influence of nature was at 
a maximum, and that of persons at a mini- 
mum. But, in proportion as men advanced 
toward civilisation, the environment of per- 
sons acquired more influence over the child's 
mental life. When religion becomes predom- 
inantly ethical, it no longer reinforces child- 
ish notions of nature, but turns the child's 
attention at once toward the regulation of 
personal relationships. Children's grotesque 
notions of God are not spontaneous and self- 
evolved ; they can be traced directly to defec- 
tive teaching, as in the case of John Fiske's 



HOW THE IMPULSE DEVELOPS 221 

bookkeeper-god. And even in such notions, 
of which the bookkeeper-god is a good illus- 
tration, we commonly find that the ethical 
element has already been introduced. In 
general, then, the religious impulse, under 
proper conditions, may be expected to move 
directly from attachment felt for earthly 
parents to reverence for the Heavenly Father. 
The child's conceptions of the Heavenly 
Father will be crude, of course, but they need 
never have the rude qualities of all early 
gods. 

123. Sketch of Leaving out of account 

Normal Religious n ^i, " -.in 

Development. ^^^ ^he moment the formal 

or instructional side of re- 
ligious training, let us try to sketch the ef- 
fect of normal relations between a child and 
his elders. The mother or nurse begins the 
work of training the moral and religious na- 
ture by her gentle, regular, hygienic response 
to the infant's physical needs.^ Here begins 
the revelation of love, human and divine, as 

* See J. G. Compayre : The Intellectual and Moral De- 
velopment of the Child (New York, 1896). Part I, pages 
168 f., and 193 (note) : also G. Stanley Hall: Article on 
Moral and Religious Training, etc., in the Pedagogical 
Seminary, volume I, page 199. Froenel remarks : "Pure 
human, parental and filial relations are the key, the first 
condition, of that heavenly, divine, fatherly, and filial 
relation and life, of a genuine Christian life in thought 
and action." — Education of Man (New York, 1888), Sec- 
tion 61. See, also, sections 21 and 88. 



222 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

the meaning of life, and of law and order 
as the method of love. The infant soon dis- 
covers that his wants are ministered to by 
the moving, speaking objects that we call per- 
sons. His world is a world of persons, and 
supreme among them are the parents. His 
sense of dependence upon them is the reli- 
gious impulse in its earliest stage.^ In some 
cases, probably many, an attitude toward a 
parent that is indistinguishable from wor- 
ship develops in the early years. It would 
be strange if it were not so.- I have in my 
possession an account of a gentleman who 
still remembered the occasion on which he dis- 
covered that his father and God were not the 
same being. This corresponds, no doubt, to 
nature-worship in the race. But quickly there 
springs up a contrast between the parent and 
an ideal being. For the child's demands out- 
run the. supply which the parent can or will 
provide. Nevertheless, for a long time the 
parent continues to be the nearest represen- 

1 "I don't need to pray to-night," said a little child, 
"for papa is going to sleep with me." 

* "The moment when the baby's mind first passes on 
from the sight of his bottle to a foregrasping or imagi- 
nation of the blisses of prehension and deglutition . . . 
marks an epoch in his existence. . . . This is the 
moment at which . . . 'mind rises above the limi- 
tations of the actual, and begins to shape for itself an 
Ideal world of possibilities.' " — James Sully : Studies of 
Childhood (New York 1900), page 405, 



HOW THE IMPULSE DEVELOPS 223 

tative of ideal being that the child knows. 

The possibility of religious development is 
provided for in the fact that the child's de- 
mands thus reach out into an ideal world. 
A place is here prepared for the idea of divin- 
ity, and constant contact with the parents' 
religious life furnishes content for the idea 
as rapidly as the child can assimilate it. His 
religious ideas and attitudes will grow with 
the developing sense of need. Demand for 
the supply of merely physical needs is fol- 
lowed by demand for knowledge. The age of 
curiosity, of free imagination, of fairy tale, 
reproduces something of the myth-making 
stage of religion in general. The incomplete- 
ness of the parents' response to the question- 
asking impulse permits the child-mind to pass 
on toward the ideal of a being who can answer 
all questions. 

After the question-asking age comes a 
period in which eons.cience and the sense 
of law become more prominent. At first 
the family is the moral universe of the 
child. The parents are discovered to possess 
not only power to supply hunger, and knowl- 
edge to supply curiosity, but also authority 
to command the will. Yet the still greater 
discovery is made that the parents are not the 



224 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

source of law, but subjects of it, and so the 
child projects into his ideal world a supreme 
moral will.^ 

At length comes the adolescent period, 
with its blossoming of the social instinct, 
and its tendencies to deeper feeling and 
broader outlook. The child who is just 
becoming a man looks out into his new world 
seeking complete expression for his new im- 
pulses. He finds society a mixture of love 
and hate, of self-sacrifice and self-seeking, of 
greatness and littleness, of beauty and ugli- 
ness, of truth and falsehood. He flees once 
more to the ideal being that has hovered over 
his whole experience, and attributes to it all 
power, all truth, all beauty, and all love. God 
is no longer mere power, wisdom, and moral 
will ; he is the universal Father, and his king- 
dom becomes the one object of complete worth 
in the world. The youth now takes God as 
his portion in a new and deeper sense, and 
enlists as a soldier of the kingdom. Yet here, 
as at all earlier stages, this ideal side of the 
nature is called out and fed by the personal 
elements of the environment, by the ideal 
qualities of parents, of friends, of the Christ. 

^ See J. Mark Baldwin : Social and Ethical Interpreta- 
tions in Mental Development (New York, 1897), pages 
327ff. 



HOW THE IMPULSE DEVELOPS 225 

In this whole development three principles 
are manifest : First, the soil of all religious' 
seed-planting and growth is the spontaneous 
idealising of life. Second, the ideal qualities 
manifested by persons interpret the child's 
idealising impulse to himself and give it spe- 
cific content, while the faith of the child in 
the reality of ideal being is reinforced by the 
living faith of his elders. Third, the instruc- 
tional element in this development comes in 
as a needed interpretation of what is already 
a reality to the child. 



CHAPTER XIV 

PERIODS OF DEVELOPMENT: INFANCY AND 
CHILDHOOD 

124. Our Deficient In spite of the great ad- 

Knowledge of • 1 M 1 11 

Childhood. vance in child-psychology 

during the last twenty 
years, our insight into the growth of the mind 
is still very far from being complete. The 
ideal is to secure a history of the experience 
of a normal child as that experie^ice appears 
to the child himself. Now, though our reminis- 
cences of our childhood are of some worth, 
they are scanty and beset with illusions of 
memory. On the other hand, our observations 
of children are beset with a tendency to in- 
terpret childhood activities and words as 
though they meant the same to the child as 
they do when they occur in our own lives. 
This is an instance of what is called "the 
psychologist's fallacy", or attributing our 
own states of mind to others (whether ani- 
mals or men) whenever they perform the same 
acts that we do. A good example has already 
been given in the misinterpretation of chil- 
dren's "lies" and "cruelty." In particular, it 



PERIODS OF DEVELOPMENT 227 



is essential to remember that the young mind 
is relatively undifferentiated; it simply does 
not have the sharply defined mental states 
that we experience in ourselves. We are not 
to think of it as a miniature reason, a minia- 
ture will, and a miniature conscience, but 
rather as a simpler personality which is in 
process of organising itself into reason, con- 
science, and will.^ 

125. The Periods In a rough way, however, 
it is possible to detect the 
chief periods of growth and some of the 
characteristics of each. Before maturity is 
reached, two main periods, each with sub- 
divisions, are lived through. The earlier, 
comprising infancy and childhood, extends 
to the age of about twelve; the later, 
called adolescence or youth, covers the next 
ten or twelve years. The subdivisions of the 
first period are as follows: Infancy, to 
the age of six ; early childhood, six to eight or 
nine; and later childhood, eight or nine to 
twelve or thirteen. In general, the period of 
childhood ends with girls about a year earlier 
than with boys, and the period of adolescence 
two or three years earlier. The subdivisions 

* See Irving Kin? : The Psychology of Child-Develop- 
ment (Chicago, 1903). 



228 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 



of adolescence will be given in the next 
chapter. 

Concerning the periods of growth two re- 
marks must now be made. The first is that 
thus far the present work has employed the 
term "child" to designate simply the imma- 
ture human being, no line being drawn, except 
now and then, between childhood in the nar- 
rower sense and adolescence. From this point 
on the technical sense of ' ' childhood ' ', as des- 
ignating the period between infancy and ado- 
lescence, must be borne in mind, else confu- 
sion between the narrower and the wider use 
may occur. A second needed remark is that 
the periods of growth are generally not 
sharply marked at their boundaries in respect 
either to time or to mental traits. Some in- 
dividuals pass through a given stage more 
rapidly than others, and so the figures just 
given must be understood to represent simply 
C\^ a rough overage. Further, the mental traits 
of any period make their appearance grad- 
ually rather than suddenly, though there are 
plenty of exceptions to this rule. As a graphic 
representation of mental growth, therefore, 
neither an inclined straight line, nor a broken 
line like the profile of a stairway, would be 



PERIODS OF DEVELOPMENT 229 

true to the facts, but rather a wavy line that 
is a mean between the two.^ 

126. Point of Our present task is to 

infancy. point out the chief mental 

traits and spontaneous in- 
terests that offer a leverage to religious and 
moral influences at the successive stages. In 
the period of infancy, three points of leverage 
are discernible. First, as already indicated, 
physical needs can be ministered to in such 
a way as to reveal love as the moving force in 
persons, and law and order as the method of 
love. Second, after language has been ac- 
quired, the parent, and later the kindergart- 
ner can color the infant 's moral sky by means 
of appropriate simple stories. Such stories 
should have no moral attached, but their 
cumulative effect should be to represent the 
truth of life. Third, the play impulse lends 
itself, through imitation, to the culture of 
social qualities. In the plays of the kinder- 
garten, habits of co-operation, of giving, of 
submission to a social whole, are formed. The 
same habits can be formed in a well-regulated 
home also. Merely to do for a child rather 

1 A general discussion of periods of growtli will be 
found In A. F. Chamberlain: The Child (London, 1901), 
Chapter IV. and in Samuel B. Haslett : The Pedagogical 
Bible School (New York, 1903), Part II. 



230 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

than with him; to make the whole household 
revolve about him, is to prevent him from 
being a real member of the family, for a mem- 
ber both gives and receives. 

127. Point of In early childhood (six 

Contact in Early . ■ ■, . • \ i 

Childhood: (1) to eight or nine), character- 

The Social Order, training proceeds by meth- 
ods that are similar, yet 
more developed. First, the child's relation to 
parental feeding and care, to the necessary 
law and order of the household, and to play- 
mates, now involves rules which the child him- 
self recognises as binding. He is already 
beyond the control of mere unreflective im- 
pulse, and there begins a struggle between his 
impulses and his rudimentary principles. The 
social order is reflected in his own conscious- 
ness; the social and the egoistic principles 
thus come into collision within him, and so he 
makes the acquaintance of conscience, though 
in a most rudimentary way. The training of 
character at this point will consist in trans- 
forming merely external rules into genuinely 
internal ones. To make rules prevail exter- 
nally is not enough. To secure compliance 
through merely egoistic motives, as is done in 
much of what is called rewards and punish- 
ments, is to make secondary the very thing 



PERIODS OF DEVELOPMENT 231 

that training should make primary. Already 
the child appreciates some of the reasons for 
the rules that are imposed upon him, and to 
this extent reasons should be given. Yet 
reason is still too frail to be the sole reliance. 
Often the only reason that can be given is 
that ''we always do so," "it is the custom," 
and so on. Hence, the child must be allowed to 
discover by experience that obedience brings 
happiness and disobedience pain. But both 
the happiness and the pain should have two 
qualities not usually associated with the pop- 
ular notion of rewards and punishments: 
They should as far as possible be simply nat- 
ural consequences of the child's conduct, and 
they should be shared in by the whole group 
of which the individual child is a member. 
The whole family should suffer and rejoice to- 
gether, and thus each child should come to 
think of his pains and pleasures as the pains 
and pleasures of his social self. 

128. (2) The This is a period of active 

Imagination. . . ,. /^t • . 

imagination. Objects are 

becoming definite, images of them are multi- 
plying, and these images are combined and 
separated in the freest manner. Stories, more 
involved and connected than those of infancy, 
and especially stories of dramatic action, are 



232 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

in the greatest demand. The same story is 
wanted over and over, and in the same lan- 
guage. Here is opportunity to fill the mind 
with a stock of images that shall represent life 
in its truth. The stories that are employed 
should not be goody-goody, nor should they 
contain any effort to reveal spiritual ideas and 
motives that are beyond the young child's 
stage of spontaneous interest. What is needed 
is, once more, the truth of life embodied in 
simple, sensuous forms, especially forms of 
outward action.^ 

129. (3) Expres- Expressive activities, al- 

sive Activities. . ., 

ways in order, now take on 

a special significance. To the relatively aim- 
less activities of the infant succeeds effort for 
successful activity, for attaining some end 
that is definitely conceived. Hence the de- 
light of children in re-telling a story or act- 
ing it out ; securing control of objects ; arrang- 
ing objects in accordance with some plan; 
constructing things or participating in the 
work of the household. Here is opportunity 

^ One of the delights of • my own childhood was the 
story-telling of my maternal grandmother. There were 
tales of Indians, and bears, and thrilling escapes. Yet 
the story that has proved to be most tenacious in my 
memory is a crude recital of a moral temptation and a 
moral victory. The story had abundant action, and 
abundant humor. Whether a moral was appended I 
cannot say, but I know that the story made truthfulness 
appear as the natural way of getting along. 



PERIODS OP DEVELOPMENT 233 

for the sharing of life mentioned in Chapter 
XI, and also for expressive activities in con- 
nection with stories from the Bible or from 
other literature. Temples, cities, forts, sol- 
diers, ships, will be gladly constructed as a 
living-out of story-material.^ Further refer- 
ence to constructive activities will be made in 
Chapter XVII. 

130. The Use of Here an important ques- 

Wonder-Stories. ,. . x -^ • ^ ^ n 

tion arises : Is it wise to tell 

to children as true, or to permit them to re- 
gard as true, stories that they will ultimately 
doubt or disbelieve ? Extreme positions have 
been taken upon this question. On the one 
hand, some parents refuse to tell their chil- 
dren any myth or fairy-lore, even denying 
them the joys of dear old Santa Clans. Such 
cases as the following are cited in support of 
this position : A little girl is said to have re- 

' Another reminiscence may be pardonable. If I may 
trust my memory, the occupations that gave me the 
most satisfaction at this period were these : In the 
earlier part of it, digging holes, and building canals, 
tunnels, and bridges in the clean sand under the limbs of 
an ancient maple tree ; going to a gulch back on the farm, 
digging holes in its hard-packed, sandy walls (I can 
still smell the odor of the freshly uncovered sand), and 
gathering " fools' " gold. Later came jumping from the 
high beams of the barn into the hay-mow ; hunting hens' 
nests : riding the horses to water ; riding the horse that 
drew the "cultivator." or otherwise "helping" in the farm 
work ; gathering hlckorynuts and butternuts. At the 
close of my early childhood I became a dweller In a 
village, and it seems to me now that my life became all 
at once relatively empty. 



234 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

marked/ 'What you told me about Santa Claus 
is untrue, and how can I know that what 
you are telling me about God is true?" At the 
opposite extreme are theorists who say that,, 
since the individual recapitulates the history 
of the race, the child should be supplied with 
such mental furniture as the race possessed 
at a corresponding stage. Hence, the Greek 
and Teutonic mythologies, fables, fairy- 
stories, and folk-lore of many varieties have 
been recommended. On the same ground it 
is proposed to feed children with wonder- 
stories from the Bible, and apparently the 
stories which adults have the most difficulty 
to accept are regarded as best adapted to 
childhood. "There is nothing more natural 
for the child," it is said, "than the belief that 
the one whom he thinks of as God should do 
wonderful things, should make the iron to 
swim, the water to burn or the sun to stand 
still when his great servants requested him 
to do so. He will be troubled sufficiently in 
later life when reason and the philosophic 
tendency have developed and he has to wres- 
tle with the nature of miracles, their necessity 
and their plausibility, and all this should be 
left for maturer years. "^ 

^ S. B. Haslett : The Pedagogical Bible School (New 
York, 1903), page 248. See also pages 305-313. 



PERIODS OP DEVELOPMENT 235 

It is, indeed, easy to understand how chil- 
dren thus fed come to "be troubled suffi- 
ciently in later life," but why should we thus 
lay up trouble in store for them? Sound ed- 
ucation will try to prevent the upheavals, not 
to say catastrophes, that these words imply. 
The correct method of handling the myth and 
wonder-story seems to lie midway between the 
two extremes. A little boy who had begun to 
guess the truth of the Santa Claus myth came 
to his mother a day or two before Christmas 
with the question, ' ' Mother, is grandma Santa 
Claus?" "Yes," replied the mother. "Is 
Auntie L. Santa Claus?" "Yes," was the 
answer again, and to each appeal for literal 
truth the mother responded with literal accur- 
acy. Yet when Christmas Eve came, the boy 
hung his stocking as usual, and he and his 
younger sister entered into the whole Santa 
Claus myth with the same zest as before. The 
point of this incident is that truth contained 
in figures can feed the imagination at the 
same time that the reason is fed with the same 
truth in literal form. Reason and imagina- 
tion are not antagonistic to each other except 
where false education has made them so. 

One extremist would feed the reason and 
starve the imagination, while the other would 



236 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

stuff the imagination without reference to 
reason. The present tendency is toward the 
latter extreme, and the current is setting so 
strongly that way that a warning is needed 
lest we prolong for another generation the 
difficulty with biblical wonder-stories that has 
so seriously troubled the last several genera- 
tions. If we do not believe that a serpent 
spoke articulate language, or that the sun 
stood still at Joshua's command, we should 
not teach these stories as though they were 
true. If we doubt them, we should not teach 
them as though we did not doubt. As soon 
and as far as any child shows an inclination 
to discriminate literal truth from imaginative 
forms, the literal truth should be given to- 
gether with the figure that clothes it. This 
does not imply the foisting of theories or of 
debated points upon children who are not 
ready for them, but it does imply fidelity to 
the truth as we see it. Only through such 
fidelity can we prevent catastrophic doubts in 
later life. 

131., Children's This brings us to the 

Questions. , , n vi j > 

problem of children s 

questions. In later infancy and early child- 
hood, curiosity is likely to be insatiable. Its 
demands often outrun the knowledge of 



PERIODS OF DEVELOPMENT 237 

parent and of teacher. The facts and laws of 
nature, particularly the mystery of genera- 
tion and birth, Bible history, human institu- 
tions and customs, moral laws, God— all these 
topics and many more are included in the 
demand for information. What response shall 
be made to this demand? Our central prin- 
ciple of the sharing of life offers a reply. 
Just as fast as the child's spontaneous inter- 
ests call for information, a perfectly honest 
and open response should be made. The 
parent or teacher should share his knowledge 
with the child without stinting. This does not 
mean that the child is capable of receiving 
the whole truth on any subject, but only that 
he should receive all that he really demands 
and in a form adapted to his powers of assim- 
ilation. This plan will involve many an "I 
do not know, ' ' and ' ' I am not absolutely sure, 
but I believe," and it will forbid all evasion 
and deception. To deceive or evade is not 
merely to put away a troublesome question; 
it is to put away the child's personality also; 
it is to begin cutting away the surest and 
most natural bond between the child and his 
elders. On the other hand, an honest, pains- 
taking answer to a question gives much more 
than information ; it gives a self. It is an act 



238 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

in which a mature soul goes out and encloses 
within its own warm life the dependent soul 
of the child. 

Doubtless this requires a high type of 
courage. To reveal one's self thus to a child 
is like standing before the judgment-bar of 
God. Indeed, is not childhood in reality a 
divine bar of judgment? In its presence we 
are forced to consider what we really are, and 
whether our ideas, our ideals, and our prac- 
tices are worthy to be perpetuated through 
the new generation. Here* we have to cast 
aside all insincerity, all conceit. We must 
confess the limitations of our knowledge and 
of our moral attainments, and discriminate 
between what we know, what we believe, and 
what we hope for. It is also necessary to 
become simple, to appreciate the child's point 
of view, and to adapt information to his 
powers. Blessed is the child who receives 
such answers to his questions that he never 
ceases during all his developing years to bring 
his problems directly to his parents ! ^ 

1 There is a special reason why questions relating to 
sex, generation, and birth should receive this Itind of 
response, namely, that the desired information is sure 
to be acquired, and that, if it is not acquired from its 
natural, pure source — the parents — it is almost certain 
to come from sources that mix error with truth, pollute 
the imagination, and often corrupt the conduct. Even 
the air of mystery that surrounds this subject when it is 
not frankly treated is a source of danger. For it stlm- 



PERIODS OF DEVELOPMENT 239 



132. Traits of Between early childhood 

Later Childhood. , . , ■ ^ , ■ s j 

(six to eight or nine) and 

later childhood (eight or nine to twelve or 

thirteen) there is no obvious break, but yet 

a real transition. Imagination now comes 

closer to real life. Tales of adventure and 

true stories from biographical and historical 

sources come into demand. This means that 

the child's own personality is growing definite 

to himself, and so also the personality of 

others.^ Consequently a higher form of social 

organisation is possible. Heretofore, games 

ulates the imagination, drives to clandestine sources of 
information, and tends to precocious stimulation of the 
sexual organism. As fast as real interest in this sub- 
ject grows, correct and literal knowledge should be im- 
parted, though it may well be clothed in the garments 
of poetic feeling. The most approved plan is to explain 
the processes of reproduction among the flowers, and 
then among animals of different grades. The knowl- 
edge thus imparted is at once scientific and yet capable 
of poetic treatment. Students of this subject believe 
that parents should impart such knowledge viva voce, 
and not by giving their children books containing it. A 
gentleman who has had large experience in the instruc- 
tion of boys in the facts of sex speaks of Mary Wood 
Allen's Almost a Mem (Ann Arbor, Mich. : Wood-Allen 
Publishing Co.) and Dr. Stall's books (Philadelphia: Vir 
Publishing Co.) as suggestive to parents and less open 
to objection than many books that have the same end in 
view. When later adolescence is reached the youth 
may with greater safety read for himself the right kind 
of books on this subject. 

* If persistence in memory is proof of an originally 
deep impression, most of the Sunday-school books that 
I read during this period made little impression upon 
me, and were therefore ill-adapted to my spontaneous 
Interests. Of the entire number 1 can now recall the 
contents of only one, a life of Charles Goodyear. One 
passage In it is especially distinct — the scene in which 
his zeal in pursuing his experiments in the vulcanisation 
of rubber led him. in order to keep his furnace hot, to 
cast in even the furniture of his home. 



240 EDUCATION IN UELIGION AND MORALS 

have been chiefly those in which, like running, 
wrestling, marbles, top-spinning, and the like, 
the individual competes with other individ- 
uals. But in the present period team games 
begin. At first even the team games are 
played for individual success or glory, but by 
the age of ten or eleven there develops true 
team play, that is, play in which the individ- 
ual works disinterestedly for the success of the 
team. Parallel with this is the tendency for 
boys, from the age of ten, to form groups or 
''gangs" of a more or less secret kind. 
Finally, interest grows in matters that involve 
skill or specialised ability, especially of a 
physical kind. Hence the efforts of girls to 
acquire skill in jackstones, beadwork, doll- 
housekeeping; of boys in various athletic ex- 
ercises, and of both boys and girls in puzzles. 
Connected with this, no doubt, is the readiness 
of children in the latter part of the period to 
apply themselves to the task of committing 
things to memory. Tricks and sleight-of-hand 
become fascinating. For a considerable period 
one of my little friends scarcely ever met me 
without asking, ' ' Have you any more tricks ? ' ' 
Interest in constructive activities is also con- 
siderable. Wooden swords, weather-vanes, 
wind-mills, toy boats, home-made wagons and 



PERIODS OF DEVELOPMENT 241 

home-made bob-sleds, bows and arrows, traps, 
kites— all testify to it. Finally, boys show 
extraordinary interest (which does not end 
with this period) in athletics. I have seen 
boys at this age show astonishing endurance in 
running around a city block as many times as 
possible without stopping, or in striving to 
increase the height of their high jump. The 
page of sporting news in the daily paper is 
read with the greatest eagerness. Especially 
interesting is the person of any champion, 
whether prize-fighter, heavy-weight lifter, 
pole-vaulter, or what not. 

133. Its Religious In this period, as always, 

Training: (1) . j i- i 

Through the the primary educational 

Social Order. fact is the contact of the 

child with the life of the 
family. In the sharing of life that constitutes 
the bond of the true family, the child absorbs 
religion by suggestion and imitation. But the 
process changes from stage to stage, particu- 
larly because the child increasingly realises 
his own individuality. In later childhood the 
personal realisation of right and wrong, what 
we call conscience, begins in a somewhat large 
and definite way to take the place that was 
occupied in early childhood by mere rules im- 
posed by external authority. This does not 



242 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

imply that now that the child has a conscience 
of his own he is to be left to himself, but only 
that his intimate relation to the family is to 
be advanced to a higher plane. Increasing 
sense of responsibility is to be met by actually 
increasing the responsibilities, that is, by en- 
larging the functions of the child in the 
family or other social group. Further, the 
growing sense of self is to be fed by increased, 
not diminished, fellowship with the parents. 
In this period, particularly toward the end of 
it, the parents can easily weaken or lose the 
confidential relationship upon which the 
surest influence depends. Consequently, this 
is a time when the sharing of the children in 
adult interests, and of adults in the children 's 
interests becomes of especial significance. 
Working together, reading together, playing 
together, form the natural background for 
advice, instruction, and common worship. 
Here is the clue, also, to sound discipline. 
The child is to learn the meaning of law 
chiefly through his personal fellowship with 
parents who are law-abiding. A parent who 
tramples upon a child's sense of justice, or 
who in the administration of even a just rule 
lays aside his fellowship with the child, or 
who in his own person exhibits caprice, arbi- 



PERIODS OF DEVELOPMENT 243 

trariness, or selfishness, is training the child 
in lawlessness. The most impressive exhibi- 
tion of the mightiness of law for any child is 
a parent who obeys law. In short, the will of 
the child, now coming to itself, is to be trained 
chiefly through the fellowship of obedience, 
the fellowship of labor, the fellowship of 
play, and the fellowship of worship. 

134. (2) Through In the next place, the in- 

Personal ity. terest in human life that 

springs up in this period, 
especially the interest in adventures and 
stirring action, can be directly utilised for 
evoking high ideals of strength and courage. 
The child now begins to sit in judgment upon 
persons as he has not done before. He esti- 
mates and weighs, condemns and admires. It 
is at least as natural for him to admire 
strength, skill, or prowess in the service of 
high ends as in the service of low ends. Pos- 
sibly it is still too early for him to realise that 
real strength lies in the intellectual and moral 
sphere, and that real heroism is heroism of 
conscience, but it is never too early to fill the 
mind with interesting images of power rightly 
employed. Such images are to be found in 
abundance in Biblical and other biographical 
material. Under the mere law of association 



244 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

of ideas these images will reinforce the child 's 
own conscience. They will help him to feel 
the naturalness of right conduct, and to feel 
this is to win half the battle for character. 

135. (3) Through A third means of relig- 

Spontaneous . ,. . ^ i • j.i. 

Activities. lous culture IS tound m the 

characteristic activities of 
the period. They cover a wide range, from 
exercises of the muscles to exercises of the 
memory. Manual training, which should be 
a part of the curriculum at every stage, now 
begins to show some of its moral fruit. Neat- 
ness, accuracy, patience, submission to law — 
all these virtues grow directly out of properly 
guided manual training. Further, it is in- 
volved in manual training that the pupil shall 
habitually look at material in the light of 
some ideal to be realised in and through it. 
Thus, controlling one's self and one's ma- 
terial in the building of matter into ideal 
forms, even though the ideal be the humble 
one of a useful stool or table, the child actu- 
ally exercises the powers and qualities that 
make a good life. The impulse toward works 
of skill can be further employed in the way 
of expressive activities for the illustration and 
full in-working of the Biblical or other ma- 
terial of instruction. Examples will be given 



PERIODS OF DEVELOPMENT 245 

in our discussion of the Sunday school. Sim- 
ilarly, the readiness to undertake feats of 
memory can now be utilised for storing the 
mind with the best things in the Bible and in 
general literature.^ 

136. (4) Through Finally, the impulse to 

the Group- 

Impulse. form groups and to engage 

in team games, especially 
toward the end of this period, furnishes an 
opportunity for developing the social sense. 
Two apparently opposite, yet complementary, 
facts can now be observed, the fighting tend- 
ency and the grouping tendency. Both rep- 
resent a heightened sense of personality, and 
both represent a tendency to socialisation. 
For the fighting is commonly done in the in- 
terest of a group, and in any case it repre- 
sents a new sense of justice, or honor, or social 
approbation. Here is opportunity to help the 
child to learn what real justice and honor are 
— not by rebuking and repressing fighting 
altogether, but rather by directing the impulse 
into socialised channels, such as the defense 
of the weak against oppression, the righting 
of social wrongs, and so on. In similar ways, 
the spirit of team games or of other group- 
activities can be made to realise itself as self- 

1 See Chapter X, § 89. 



246 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

sacrifice, fidelity, loyalty. This implies, of 
course, that adults should not hold themselves 
aloof from these child's interests, but enter 
into them with sympathy and appreciation. 
Merely giving advice is not enough; merely 
restraining excesses is not truly educative. 
Here, as everywhere, the essential educative 
force is the genuine mingling of a developed 
life in the interests and occupations of unde- 
veloped lives. 



CHAPTER XV 

PERIODS OP DEVELOPMENT : ADOLESCENCE 

137. Our Limited The study of the inner 

Adolescence^ ^^^^ of adolescents has been 

limited almost exclusively 
to children of families connected with, or 
under the influence of, the evangelical Prot- 
estant churches. Even of these children the 
ones chiefly studied are those who have varied 
least from customary types of piety. Of the 
inner life of adolescents brought up under 
Catholicism, or under non-Christian religions, 
or without religious influences, we know next 
to nothing except by inference. Adolescent 
religious psychology is therefore far from 
being complete. Yet three claims may be 
made for it. In the first place, the analysis 
of cases has been sufficiently careful to estab- 
lish results that are true at least for the par- 
ticular classes examined. In the next place, 
these results have been brought into relation 
to the physical and mental traits that are 
characteristic of the period in general. 
Finally the results have been brought into re- 
lation also with a large body of religious cus- 



248 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 



toms and rites in the Christian churches and 
in other religions. From all this, it is safe to 
conclude that the cases already examined have 
important significance as revealing the gen- 
eral nature of adolescence, though the special 
form in which they present it is determined 
by a special environment and type of training. 

138. The Central The central point of view 

for understanding adoles- 
cence is the psycho-physical one, particularly 
as it concerns the change from childhood to 
adult life. This transformation is as fully 
mental as physical. In both realms it is a 
change in the relation of the individual to the 
species, specifically a change in which the 
individual acquires new power, yet power the 
meaning of which has reference to society. 
Here stand individualising and socialising 
processes over against each other, yet united 
into one. The child becomes independent of 
parental control, begins to think and act for 
himself, has a larger individual life, yet, at 
the same time, he acquires a heightened social 
sense, forms more and deeper connections 
with his fellows, and actually becomes more 
fully subordinated to social custom than be- 
fore. Thus, both self-consciousness and social 
consciousness come to the blossom. Intellec- 



PERIODS OF DEVELOPMENT : ADOLESCENCE 249 

tual capacity is heightened, emotion grows 
deeper, ethical and aesthetic sensibility grows 
acute. Defective training or environment 
may, of course, provide inadequate opportu- 
nity for the growth of these tendencies. They 
appear in varying mixtures according to tem- 
perament, health and disease, rest and fa- 
tigue, and suggestion arising from the imme- 
diate environment. But now for the first 
time the individual acquires these higher ca- 
pacities which, under proper conditions, be- 
come actualities. 

139. Direction of If the rcligious life is to 

Growth"^ ^0 on developing through 

this period, it must undergo 
a parallel transformation. On the one hand, 
one's religion must become more clearly one's J 
own, a value personally realised, an idea that 
brings personal conviction ; on the other hand, 
it must become socialised, idealised, and ex- 
panded until it is all-inclusive. Into the 
thought of God should now be poured all the 
wealth of new sentiments and ideals. The in- 
tellect, becoming independent, and aspiring 
toward ultimate truth, is feeling after an ideal 
mind that shall contain all the riches of truth. 
Conscience seeks an absolute standard. The 
social impulse reaches out beyond all visible 



250 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

persons to the thought of an ideal and inde- 
structible fellowship. A new eye for beauty 
now adds to all this a sense of an inner side 
to the glories of nature. An all 'round reli- 
gious development, in which idea, sentiment, 
and action become an harmonious unit, per- 
sonally realised, yet all-encompassing, is not 
the rule, but it represents the possibilities of 
the period and the direction that religious 
culture should take. 

140. Sub -Periods These qualities of adoles- 

of Adolescence. i , n j. 

cence do not all appear at 

once, but progressively in three sub-periods. 
,The first, or early adolescence (twelve or thir- 
teen to sixteen), is marked by a strong tend- 
ency to self-assertion, yet to incipient social 
organisations, particularly with persons of 
the same sex. It is the awkward age when, 
being rather more than a child and yet less 
than a man, one has no customary grooves in 
which to move. Hence its apparent contra- 
dictions of boisterousness, yet secretiveness ; 
of timidity, yet over-boldness; of self-assert- 
iveness, yet dependence upon a group or 
"gang." There is abounding physical activ- 
ity, and a correspondingly keen appreciation 
of action, strength, and heroism. 

The second sub-period, or middle ado- 



PERIODS OF DEVELOPMENT: ADOLESCENCE 251 

lescenee (sixteen to eighteen) brings more 
of sentiment, more attraction toward per- 
sons of the opposite sex, more romanticism, 
and more sense of the depth of life. Self- 
consciousness takes on a social coloring, as 
in early adolescence it was largely given 
to self-assertion. Because of its increased 
emotional capacity, this is the period when 
the largest proportion of conversions, as 
this term is commonly used in the evan- 
gelical Protestant churches, occurs.^ This fact 
does not prove that the emotional stresses fre- 
quently connoted by the term conversion, or 
indeed that conversion in any sense, is normal 
to just this period, but only that influences 
that touch the sentiments are more effective 
now than at any other period of life." 

The third sub-period, or later adolescence 
(eighteen to twenty-four or even later) tends 

1 Edwin D. Starbuck : The Psychology of Religion 
(London, 1899); George A. Coe : The Spiritual Life 
(New York, 1900), Chapter I. 

* The age of 16 Is the most favorable for emotional 
conversions. But it Is a misinterpretation of this fact 
to assume that therefore conversions of this type should 
be looked for in all persons, or that entrance upon a per- 
sonal religious life should be postponed to this particu- 
lar age. On the contrary, the general trend of the psy- 
chology of adolescent religion is to the effect that re- 
ligious growth and religious conversion are simply two 
forms of the same thing, and, further, that the abrupt 
form of this process is often due to neglect of training 
In earlier life, to defective training, and to a large 
mass of circumstances that are not essential to personal 
religion. As to tlie age for joining the church, see $ 143. 



252 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 



more toward reflectiveness, the construction 
of one's thought-system, the recognition of 
one's practical relations to society, the con- 
sideration of one 's calling in life, the assump- 
tion of full responsibility as a citizen. 

141. Religious Every characteristic of 

Culture in Early ., , , , „ 

Adolescence: adolescence here named lur- 

5.V 1®.'*°" nishes a point of contact for 

Worship. ^ 

religious education. To 
begin with early adolescence (twelve or thir- 
teen to sixteen) its admiration for strength, 
individuality, heroism, offers a direct means 
of approaching the problem. What is it to be 
a strong man? Every one who is familiar 
v^ith athletics knows that it is mind not less 
than muscle that wins athletic contests. A 
strong man must have a strong mind. But a 
mind is weak that does not devote itself to 
worthy ends. Moral courage is more 
heroic than so-called physical courage. In 
fact, a series of steps can here be taken from 
admiration of strength as such to admiration 
for strong Christian character. The means 
for making such impressions are first of all 
true stories and biographies from the Bible 
and from general history. Such a study, in- 
teresting in itself, will lead up to the truth 



PERIODS OF DEVELOPMENT: ADOLESCENCE 1253 

that Jesus is really the strongest man in all 
history. 

142. (2) The The impulse of young 

"Gang" Impulse. , , . . p i 

adolescents to rorm close, 

more or less secret groups, commonly called 
''gangs", of persons of their own sex is a 
preliminary manifestation of the social con- 
sciousness.^ The impulse that underlies these 
gangs is essentially good, because it is social. 
Yet the self-assertive spirit of boys at this 
period, coupled with the secrecy of the gang, 
easily leads to small violations of established 
order, then to larger ones. Any boy who is 
neglected by his parents at this time is likely, 
through his gang (the existence of which his 
parents may not be aware of), to read per- 
nicious literature, to form vicious sexual ideas 
and habits, to pilfer and lie, and thus to be- 
come, even through the social impulse, un- 
social toward the world at large. The gangs 
of young criminals in our cities are simply 
groups of fellows whose natural appetite for 
sociability, activity, and freedom has had in- 
sufficient or improper food.' The gang impulse 

* Our knowledge of adolescent girls is far less than 
that of adolescent boys. What is here said of gangs 
applies, primarily, to boys, though the principle involved 
is not limited to them. 

^ One of Chicago's gang of "car-barn murderers," just 
before attempting suicide as a means of escaping the gal- 
lows, scrawled a defence of his life, or rather a (florifl- 



254 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

is as capable of being an instrument of weal 
as of woe. It may develop in moral and reli- 
gious directions as well as any other. The 
part of wisdom is not to attempt to suppress 
it (the attempt is pretty sure to fail), but to 
get religion into the gang, or the gang into re- 
ligion. Experience at settlements and some 
churches shows that young adolescents will- 
ingly accept the leadership of a mature man 
who understands them. 

143. Age of If there is a normal age 

Joining the „ ... ,, . i •. 

Church. for joinmg the church, it 

appears to be just this age, 

with its new demand for social existence. 

Among 512 officers of Young Men 's Christian 

Associations the average age of the first deep 

religious impression appears to have been 

13.7 years.^ Among 99 men who were studied 

with reference to all their periods of special 

religious interest, as many awakenings of the 

religious sense occurred at twelve and thirteen 

as at sixteen and seventeen.^ A recent study, 

cation of It, that showed arrest of moral development 
at just the period when early adolescence is carried away 
with admiration of power and courage and with the 
spirit of the gang. The poor fellow prided himself on 
his fidelity to his companions, his daring but lawless 
acts, his ability to elude the police, and his several ex- 
periences of being shot. 

1 Association Outlook for December, 1897. Article by 
Luther H. Gulick. 

=! Oeorse A. Coe : The Spiritual Life (New York, 
1900), Chapter I. 



PERIODS OF DEVELOPMENT: ADOLESCENCE 255 

not yet published, shows that in a group of 
"growth cases" reaching into the hundreds, 
the most distinctive period of spontaneous in- 
terest falls at the age of twelve. At about this 
age many children desire to join the church, 
make public confession, or be baptized, but 
are prevented on the ground that they are too 
young. There commonly follows indifference 
that is in many cases never overcome. This 
is about the age, too, that liturgical churches 
have fixed upon, by long custom, for confirma- 
tion or first communion. From all these facts, 
it appears that the age of the gang impulse is 
the one most natural for a step in social reli- 
gion, and for recognition by the church.^ 
144. (3) Personal Que of the most effective 

Friendship. /. i i • i, 

means of developing char- 
acter in this period is the confidential friend- 
ship of a mature person of the highest Chris- 

1 Contrary to my former view and to the view of 
Starbucli, I am convinced tliat early ratlier than middle 
adolescence is the more important turning point. Con- 
versions that occur at sixteen and seventeen seem to 
me to represent cases in which development of the re- 
ligious sense did not proceed normally during the pre- 
ceding four or five years ; they are essentially an effort 
to "catch up." 

If the age for joining the church is either early or 
middle adolescence, the conditions of church membership 
should be exceedingly simple — little if anything more 
than an acknowledgment of the leadership of Jesus. 
Subscription to a creed is entirely out of place before 
later adolescence at least. Whether it is ever in place 
as a condition of admission to church membership need 
not here be discussed. 



256 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

tian character. Such friendship is the inesti- 
mable privilege of parents. If the adolescent 
only carries his real problems and interests to 
his parents the contest against evil associations 
and groupings is already won. Here in early 
adolescence is the foundation laid for the 
good or evil that appears in middle and later 
adolescence. ' ' The best safeguard of a young 
man in college — better even than being in love 
with the right kind of girl — is a perfectly 
open and affectionate relation to both parents. 
. . One of the surprises in the adminis- 
trative life at college is the underhand deal- 
ing of parents, not merely with college officers, 
but with their own sons."^ 

There is absolutely no substitute for the 
giving of one's self in a personal friendship 
to unformed youths. No other form of i^ind- 
ness, no other act of affection, however in- 
tense the affection may be, will suffice. A 
head master was obliged to inform a father 
that his boy was failing in his studies, and 
that he had been "playing the races." "I 
don't understand it at all," said the father, 

1 LeBaron Russell Briggs : School, College and Char- 
acter (Boston. 1902), Chapter I. Dean Briggs calls es- 
pecial attention to the fact that, as the young man's 
chief temptation grows out of his newly acquired in- 
terest in sex, this is a point at which the lack of con- 
fidential relations between parents and children is most 
destructive. 



PERIODS OF DEVELOPMENT: ADOLESCENCE 2o7 

* ' for I have given my son everything he could 
wish for." Yes, everything except the one 
thing that alone could make the son safe. In 
contrast to this, a mother in one of our west- 
ern states, fearing that her boy, when he 
began his college studies, would no longer find 
her a companion of his mind, (since she had 
not had college advantages), actually pro- 
cured college text-books and studied them year 
by year so as to keep abreast of her son's in- 
tellectual interests.^ It is, perhaps, needless to 
add that, in some degree, teachers may share 
the privilege of parents in respect to friend- 
ship with young adolescents. A teacher who 
establishes such relations with his pupils that 
they freely express themselves to him multi- 
plies his moral and religious influence over 
them many fold. 

145. Religious AH that has just been 

Culture in -in i i i 

iviiddie said 01 early adolescence 

Adolescence. applies also to middle ado- 

lescence (sixteen to eight- 
een). But in general these personal relations 
must be established in the earlier period or 

1 Would that all who read this paragraph might have 
witnessed the pride with which the son told me these 
facts, adding that simple, intimate companionship with 
his mother had continued from boyhood all through his 
college days. Here is a hint as to the value of higher 
education for women. 



258 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

the opportunity for starting them fades away. 
In addition, leverage for religious culture in 
middle adolescence is found in the larger part 
played by sentiment, particularly the social 
sentiment. Worship now acquires new mean- 
ings and influence, and it should be admin- 
istered in that beauty of holiness that the 
youth is now ready to feel. Again, the inner 
life of heroes and saints, and the inner springs 
of history, acquire interest. In both early and 
middle adolescence missionary biography and 
adventure offer rich material. Now, too, the 
inner side of the life of Christ will touch the 
heart. Further, the growing social sense 
makes possible the use of social influences in 
a new way ; the young people 's society or the 
organised Sunday-school class will tie the in- 
dividual to the church, offer means of per- 
sonal religious culture, and introduce him to 
simple forms of service for the church and 
for his fellows. 

146. Training the How shall we treat the 
tendencies to sentiment that 
now appear? Some persons simply smile at 
the crudities that come to the surface, and 
pass them by as insignificant. Others play 
upon the emotions, sometimes stimulating 
them to excess under the delusion that emo- 



PERIODS OF DEVELOPMENT: ADOLESCENCE 250 

tional upheavals indicate the transformation 
or sudden maturing of character. Still 
others discourage active emotion as a sign of 
weakness. But in all these attitudes the ed- 
ucational idea of development through the 
guidance of spontaneous interests is over- 
looked. The correct attitude toward adoles- 
cent sentiment is this : 

(1) The developmental principle holds at 
this period as fully as at any earlier one. 
There is no "short-cut" to maturity. If emo- 
tional crises occur, as they are likely to do 
even without forcing, they should be treated 
simply as facts belonging in a long series of 
other facts reaching from infancy to man- 
hood. But emotional crises are not to be 
worked for or "worked up." Development 
may, indeed, be more rapid at one time than 
another. Even in intellectual growth there 
are sometimes sudden startings and equally 
sudden checkings. Yet we cannot rely upon 
any sudden start to bring the pupil to his 
intellectual or his spiritual goal. These starts 
must be co-ordinated with what goes before 
and with what comes after, and especial care 
must be taken to prevent a reaction into in- 
ditference when the emotional outburst has 
spent itself. 



260 EDUCATION IX RELIGION AND MORALS 

(2) The fact that sentiment begins to blos- 
som in this period indicates that it should 
have a place in onr scheme of education. 
What is needed is culture of the sentiments. 
This differs from over-stimulation, as it does 
from neglect and from repression. It implies 
feeding this side of the nature. The church 
services should have such a content, setting, 
and manner as to produce the awe, the eleva- 
tion, and the joy of worship. The upspring- 
ing thirst for a personal realisation of God 
should be met in our teaching by some in- 
struction regarding the experiences of the 
heart and the conscience that certify to us the 
immediate presence of God. The ethical sen- 
timents, particularly, should be deepened, yet 
made free and joyous. The idea of the broth- 
erhood of man, and of service to men as con- 
taining and revealing something of the mean- 
ing of our mysterious existence will be wel- 
comed by the growing social instinct. 

(3) Yet it is easy, by over-stimulation of 
the sense of right and wrong, or by too great 
emphasis upon the inner evidence of divine 
things, to produce morbidness. Other fre- 
quent contributing causes of morbidness are 
abnormal states of the physical system, par- 
ticularly nerve-fatigue induced by neglect of 



PERIODS OF DEVELOPMENT: ADOLESCENCE 261 

physical hygiene (improper diet, late hours, 
indoor living, etc.), excessive excitements 
(social and other), overloading the school cur- 
riculum, evil habits, unhappy personal rela- 
tionships in the family, and so on.^ On the 
other hand, too much publicity in prayer 
meeting or young people's society is likely to 
result in habits of shallow spirituality and 
(under the pressure to say something) in un- 
derestimation of the seriousness of speech 
and the importance of exact truthfulness. 

(4) Finally, the normal growth of senti- 
ment may be missed at this its golden oppor- 
tunity. While many adolescents suffer from 
excessive or misdirected sentiment, others 
suffer for the want of sentiment. They are 
repressed, or made ashamed, or kept from 
such teachings and associations as awaken 
noble sentiment, or they are victims of some 
abnormal physical condition that deadens the 
nerves. To set free the imprisoned emotional 
powers of such an adolescent is a great service 
to him, for unless these powers are now given 
exercise he is likely to remain through life 
cold, colorless, incapable of the warmth of 
appreciation in which so much of life's wealth 
consists. 

' I have spoken somewhat fuUv on this point in 
Chapter II of The Spiritual Life (New Yorls, 1900). 



262 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

147. Religious In later adolescence 

Culture in Later / • i . , . . j? 

Adolescence. (eighteen to twenty-four 

or later) the special means 
of religious culture are determined by the 
broader, more rational, more ethical out- 
look upon life, and by the great fact that 
now the youth begins to assume the full 
responsibilities of manhood. (1) Broader 
and more critical studies of life and its 
problems can be entered upon through the 
history of Israel and of the Christian church, 
the general history of religion, the study of 
Christian missions, of Christian ethics, of 
Christian doctrine, or of current problems of 
practical sociology and of church life. (2) 
Such studies should be accompanied by plen- 
tiful means of self-expression, such as discus- 
sions, debates, essays, worship, and especially 
church work and practical philanthropy. 
Many of the young people at this age should 
enter normal classes in order to prepare 
themselves to teach in the Sunday school, and 
all should study the immediate problems of 
their own local church. The world now lays 
upon the adolescent the responsibilities of 
manhood and womanhood, and the closing 
part of his formal education is to be had 
largely through actual service, under proper 



PERIODS OF DEVELOPMENT : ADOLESCENCE 263 

direction, in Sunday school, missions, settle- 
ments, hospitals, and the various other activ- 
ities of the church. Further, the duties of 
citizenship are now to be fully assumed. The 
laws of the state and the ordinances of the 
municipality might well be studied in the 
parts that relate more directly to the ethical 
aspects of government. Public sanitation and 
cleanliness, enforcement of the laws relating 
to liquor-selling, gambling, and the social evil, 
the problems of honest government— all these 
interests of the kingdom of God are to be 
studied and also actively entered upon. 

148. Adolescent This is the period when 

intellectual doubts are 
likely to appear rather formidable. While it 
is not probable that a very large proportion 
of the young people of the churches expe- 
riences difficulty at this point, a few always 
do so, and these few will generally be found 
to include some of the strongest minds in any 
group. The doubt may or may not be accom- 
panied by emotional disturbance and sense 
of personal loss or danger. The emotional 
doubt must often be treated by the methods 
of general emotional hygiene, that is, by 
restoring the nerves to equilibrium, and turn- 
ing the attention to other interests. But what 



204 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

shall be done with the sincere and persistent 
intellectual doubt? Now is the time when 
real statesmanship in education is needed— 
the statesmanship that believes in freedom of 
thought; that believes in the capacity of 
young persons of serious mind to attain a 
personal conviction on all points that are 
essential to their character; that conceals 
nothing, and resorts to no indirection or sub- 
terfuge; that has sympathy, good humor, 
patience; that refuses to permit any young 
person to excommunicate himself in act or in 
feeling because of his doubts; that has a 
strong grip upon the fundamental verities, 
especially the practical faiths upon which 
our real life depends; finally, that engages 
young persons in active service of humanity 
even in the midst of the severest doubts. The 
intellectual tactics most likely to be helpful in 
such cases consist less in the direct refutation 
of the doubt than in a wider opening out of 
the problem through which the doubt arises. 
A larger horizon is often sufiEicient. A doubt 
as to the inspiration of the Scriptures can 
best be met by exhibiting the growth of the 
self-revelation of God of which the Scriptures 
are a record. One who appreciates the 
growth of the religious consciousness in 



PERIODS OP DEVELOPMENT: ADOLESCENCE 265 

Israel is not likely to be troubled with the 
question of inspiration. Similarly, doubts as 
to the person of Christ may well be met by 
intensive study of his life as a whole, and a 
broad study of the place that he occupies in 
the general religious history of humanity. 

149. The Spiritual The capacity for love be- 
Value of £ -J. 

Human Love. tween persons 01 opposite 

sex, the beginning of which 
is the central fact of adolescent psychology, 
is usually treated as a matter of indifference 
to religion or else as a positive hindrance to 
spiritual development. In view of the diffi- 
culty of controlling this most powerful in- 
stinct, it is not strange that ascetic notions 
with regard to it should have so largely pre- 
vailed. Yet the worst evils are always per- 
versions of the best goods. Social immorality 
is the most deadly of human vices just because 
human love stands in the closest positive rela- 
tion to the growth of spiritual qualities. In 
fact, the higher sentiments that cluster about 
the relations of the sexes are, in their normal 
development, precisely the ones that consti- 
tute a spiritual as distinguished from an un- 
spiritual life. This is true whether we fmd 
the mark of unspirituality in grossness or in 
selfishness. The great unselfishness that 



200 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

knows no life except through losing its life is 
not an experience of childhood ; it awaits 
adolescence, and it is an iipshoot of our 
capacity for devoted love to a person of the 
opposite sex. So, also, it is love that refines 
away the grossness that lurks within our 
nature. The lover's reverence for the loved 
object, of which Plato speaks; the idealising 
in which every lover indulges; the quickened 
sense of beauty which gives an "opaline, 
dove's-neck lustre" to the lover's world- 
all this helps to refine life in general. It 
spreads through the whole life of lovers and 
is communicated to the whole of society. As 
a result, religion is in general promoted by a 
normal development of human love, and is 
hindered by whatever prevents or degrades 
it. There can easily be too great separation 
of the sexes in all the sub-periods of ado- 
lescence. Simple, free, unrebuked association 
between boys and girls, and between young 
men and young women has proved itself in 
our American life and education to be whole- 
some. The reason therefor is the profound 
psychological relation between love human 
and love divine. A social life of which the 
family, with its unity of adults and children, 
and of both sexes, is a type, is one of the 



PERIODS OF DEVELOPMENT: ADOLESCENCE 267 



surest safeguards of adolescence, one of the 
surest nurseries of the spiritual sensibilities.* 

^ What a fearful moral problem is presented by the 
fact that hundreds of thousands of young persons, at 
or near the close of middle adolescence, leave the free 
social life of the family and the neighborhood to go 
away to college or to seek their living among strangers 
In the cities. We shall not solve the problem of reli- 
gious education for later adolescence until we discover 
ways and means of providing social life for such young 
persons. Here is a hint of the opportunity of the insti- 
tutional church, and of the need for more sociability 
everywhere. 



PART III 
INSTITUTIONS 



CHAPTER XVI 



THE FAMILY 



150. The Family A father who felt con- 

as a Moral and . ■ t . • -< n 

Religious strained to punish a small 

Community. son for infraction of a com- 

mand prefaced his act with 
the following explanation: "My boy, I do 
not like to punish you, but it is my duty to 
do so, for God has delegated to me the author- 
ity and the responsibility of governing this 
family. ' ' The small boy was at first awed by 
the thought that his father represented God, 
and thereby his observation of his father's 
conduct was quickened. The result was a 
conviction that the father was mistaken con- 
cerning his prerogative, for all the facts went 
to show that in family government, as in other 
affairs, he employed his own judgment and 
sometimes yielded to his own impulses. 

As a matter of fact, the conception of the 
parent as one who simply commands, and of 
the child as one who simply obeys, belongs 
with the medieval conception of church 
authority and the Augustinian doctrine of 
divine decrees. Assuming that the child 
is simply to conform, through compulsion 
or otherwise, to the will of a superior 



272 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

being, it forfeits the real educational op- 
portunity of the home. The opportunity 
of the home is the chance to share life. 
The superiority of the home to every other 
educational institution grows not merely out 
of the length of time that the child is in con- 
tact with the parent, but also out of the 
intimacy of that contact, and out of the com- 
pleteness with which the family is able to 
realise the idea of a moral and religious com- 
munity. Not through mere conformity, but 
through exercising the functions of a member 
of the family community, does the character' 
of the child grow. The obverse side of this 
truth is that the parent educates, just as the 
child is educated, simply by filling his place 
as a member of the family community, that 
is, by submitting his whole conduct to the law 
of the sharing of life. A part of what this 
sharing implies has already been shown 
at various places in our discussion. It implies 
that children share in the work of parents, 
that parents share in the occupations of chil- 
dren, that the joys and sorrows of each are 
shared by all. We need now to carry forward 
this idea of the sharing of life until we see 
its bearing upon law and obedience, and upon 
family religion. 



THE FAMILY 273 



151. Law and It is often said, and with 

Obedience in the , . ..1-^.1^^.1- 

Pa^ily, obvious truth, that there is 

need of more effective 
teaching of obedience and of respect for law 
as such. Yet few parents have the heart to 
go back to the mechanical rigidity of the fam- 
ily government of other days. The pity of it 
is that so few parents go forward to a 
realisation of law as the necessary method of 
love, of obedience as a necessary factor in 
freedom.^ The starting point for solving this 
whole problem of uniting gentleness with 
firmness, joyousness with obedience, is the 
conception of the family as a community 
rather than a mere collection of individuals. 
Community life implies mutual giving and 
receiving, helping and being helped, and also 
the submission of every member to the neces- 
sary conditions of a common life. Law is 
involved in the very idea of the family as a 
community. It is not necessary to introduce 
any legalistic or juridical notions of author- 
ity; the authority of family law lies open to 
the sight in the family itself. It simply 
expresses the concrete facts and conditions 
of family existence. It is simply mutual help- 
fulness so organised Ss to execute itself with 

1 See § § 40-42, 



274 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

efficiency. Hence the parents take their place 
within the family, not as the source of its 
law, but as subjects of it. Sharing the life 
of obedience with their children, they teach 
most effectively the lesson of respect for law. 
The fact that children must obey before they 
understand the reasons for obedience need 
not produce any sense of being arbitrarily 
dealt with, for their suggestibility enables 
them to assume, both externally and inter- 
nally, the attitudes of those who surround 
them. The essential requirement is that they 
should feel themselves to be members of a 
group that is really governed by the spirit of 
obedience. When punishment becomes neces- 
sary, it should be made to appear as an 
expression of law, not of caprice, and the 
whole family should enter into the woe of it. 
The only kind of punishment that can teach 
real obedience is punishment that is itself 
obedient and that does not separate the child 
from the family, but rather binds him to it 
through mutual sympathy.^ If a parent 
should himself transgress, what better can he 
do than humble himself and become as a little 

^ Much of this has been insisted upon by Herbert 
Spencer In his "Education : Intellectual, Moral, and 
Physical" (New York, 1872), Chapter III. But It is 
doubtful whether the "coldness" that he recommends 
toward offenders is as good as warm sympathy with them 
even at the moment of their punishment. 



THE FAMILY 275 



child by making open reparation? The key 
to the whole teaching of obedience, then, is 
the establishment of true community life in 
the family, a life that is free from all arbi- 
trariness, all artificial requirements, but 
faithful in its administration of the natural 
and necessary laws of its existence, and insis- 
tent upon obedience from the parents as well 
as the children. 
152. Family In the idea of the family 

Religion. .^ , 

as a community we have 

the clue to the proper organisation of family 
religion also. Wherever the children really 
share the parents' life, and the parents the 
children's life, in the manner already indi- 
cated, participation of the children in the 
religion of the parents is free and spon- 
taneous. Parents who do not share with their 
children the life of work, play, and obedience, 
should not be surprised if they find their 
children unresponsive to parental religion. 
We should drop once for all the fatal notion 
that training in religion can be made to thrive 
in a compartment by itself, away from the 
sunlight and atmosphere of life as a whole. 
With children, as with us adults, religion is 
either pervasive of life or it is next to noth- 
ing. Now, children who participate in the 



276 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

real life of their elders in other respects, will 
easily and naturally feel the reality of reli- 
gion also. They will find family prayer 
natural and unconstrained.^ They will listen 
to instruction. They will accompany their 
parents to church without forcing, and in due 
season they will take upon themselves as a 
matter of course the responsibilities of full 
membership in the church.^ 

But all this presupposes that the religion of 
the parents is made constantly visible and 
audible to the children. Between parent and 
child there is no known telepathic connection 
whereby unexpressed principles are com- 
municated. A merely internal religion, which 
has no outward modes of expression, cannot 
be a strong educational power. Therefore, if 
God is to become a living power in the 
consciousness and the conduct of children, 
parents must habitually speak of him as an 
actual, present reality in their own lives. 

» See § 121. 

' Would it not he well, on the other hand, for every 
pastor to see to it that the church service invariably 
offers something to children that is specifically adapted 
to their apprehension? I sympathise with children who 
object to attending a service that is wholly meaningless 
to them. On the other hand, services can often be made 
meaningful by stimulating an active attitude of children 
toward them. All parts of the worship in which the 
people take part audibly, or by rising or kneeling, can be 
participated in by children, who can also be encouraged 
to remember the text, and to look for some idea that can 
be reported to the parents after home laas been reached. 



THE FAMILY 277 



Nothing can possibly take the place of free 
conversation with children about divine 
things. Our extreme reticence on such sub- 
jects is not due solely to our reverence ; it 
contains also an element of cowardice, and it 
results in weakening ourselves as well as the 
young. Religious conversation needs to be 
reinforced, of course, by specific religious 
exercises in which children can join. 

153. Why Family Before discussing any 

Declined: (1) further the specific methods 

Transitional of family training in reli- 

State of Culture. . . •„ , „ 

gion, it will be well to 
notice the fact that such training, according 
to universal opinion, has suffered a general 
decline within the last generatiod. The causes 
therefor are complex. First of all, we are in 
a transitional stage of culture. Within this 
period the educational ideas of freedom and 
spontaneity have filtered into the home, and 
the result has been dissatisfaction with the 
mechanical and repressive methods whereby 
religion was once taught. Again, conscious- 
ness of the transitional state of religious be- 
lief has made parents uncertain as to just 
what to teach their children. Then, too, im- 
provements in public education, and the ex- 
traordinary extension and multiplication of 



278 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

the means of culture through books, maga- 
zines and newspapers have swamped the 
homely efforts of plain parents. The children 
have been, as it were, snatched away from the 
parents, to be educated by the great world. 

154. (2) New Meantime, new industrial 

Conditions. conditions have also tended 

to create a gap between 
parent and child, and to prevent the sharing 
of life. First, the occupation of most fathers 
has ceased to be carried on at or close to the 
home. Not only does this prevent the chil- 
dren from securing a share in the father's 
work, or even a sympathetic acquaintance 
with it, but the father 's early start from home 
and his late return day by day render diffi- 
cult any intimate acquaintance with his 
children, and of course it tends to prevent 
daily family devotions. Second, under the 
modern conditions of division of labor and 
specialisation of effort, the family performs 
fewer kinds of service for itself, and so pro- 
vides less occupation for children's hands, 
and less opportunity for co-operation with 
parents. What was once made in the home is 
now purchased ready to use. This is true of 
clothing, of food, of house furnishings and 
decorations, of the supply of light, heat, and 



THE FAMILY 279 



water. Under the old conditions, each child 
at an early age assumed regular duties in the 
way of family service. Thereby were devel- 
oped habits of industry, thrift, obedience, 
regularity, a sense of responsibility, and a 
realisation of mutual rights and obligations. 
Under present conditions, except in the coun- 
try, this character-forming participation of 
the child in the life of his elders is reduced to 
a minimum. Third, because money has be- 
come the almost exclusive means of securing 
the satisfaction of wants it has acquired exag- 
gerated significance. At the same time few 
children receive any proper training with 
respect to its acquisition and use. For the 
most part, the children of to-day are simply 
spenders of that of which they cannot under- 
stand the value or the proper use. 
155. (3) Life in Add to this the enormous 

increase in city populations, 
with all that this entails, and it will be evi- 
dent how seriously the relation of the child 
to the means of education in the home has 
been altered. For the city child has less con- 
tact with nature, less opportunity for whole- 
some play, less of the simple life that befits 
childhood. The multiplicity of interests and 
distractions incident to modern life, particu- 



280 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

larly in cities, is also of moment to the prob- 
lem of maintaining normal family life. For 
not only are the various members of the fam- 
ily carried apart from one another by the 
manifold currents of business, social, and rec- 
reational interests and opportunities, but the 
sensitive brain of the child is fairly bom- 
barded by the excitements of the city. More 
than that, the modern city, by massing the 
forces of evil, gives them a standing and an 
opportunity which they have nowhere else. 
The young behold evil constantly ; they see it 
tolerated and taken for granted ; they cannot 
help knowing how their lower propensities 
can be indulged with the least chance of dis- 
covery and reproach. This is true, not only 
of evil in its grosser forms, such as drinking, 
gambling, and licentiousness, but also of all 
those frivolities that enervate character. In 
such a situation, the problem of preserving 
nervous balance, wholesome simplicity, and 
close family fellowship becomes very serious. 

156. (4) Tendency Another set of causcs for 

to Luxury. , t t , ^ 

the decline m parental 
training may be found in the rapid increase 
of material possessions. We live in a period 
of increasing incomes for the masses as well 
as increasing fortunes for the wealthy. The 



THE FAMILY 281 



effect upon the family is direct and im- 
mediate. The spirit of self-indulgence is 
encouraged, and the homely virtues of Poor 
Richard's Almanac are forgotten if not^ 
despised. Luxury is not definable in any 
numerical way, but the spirit of it is this : If 
you want a thing, and have the means of get- 
ting it, get it, of course. The result is soft- 
ness, the decay of active human sympathies, 
fondness for display, the creation of artificial 
tastes, the regarding of luxuries as necessities, 
the acceptance of artificial standards with 
respect to persons and society, and a tendency 
to relax wholesome moral restraints. These 
things are happening, not only among the 
wealthy, but also among the masses. The 
scale of expenditure and of display tends 
everywhere to be the measure of men. In- 
stead of keeping ahead of their expenses by 
economy of outgo, men think only of increas- 
ing their income, and so they involve them- 
selves in an unending chase which constantly 
increases in rapidity. Upon children the 
effect of all this is to prevent the development 
of the sturdy virtues. Home becomes a col- 
lection of things instead of a community of 
persons. The parents become dispensers of 
cash instead of confidential friends. And 



282 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

how quickly does a child learn to think, "I 
may because I can." Money then becomes a 
curse. Liberty becomes license, and the 
impersonal goods that the parents have pro- 
vided become a mere paint to conceal a de- 
caying moral structure. 

157. How Improve To enumerate these weak- 

Home T J 1 j: 

Training? nesses and the causes oi 

them in the light of our 
general principle of the sharing of life is al- 
ready to indicate the directions in which ef- 
forts for improvement should be made. It 
•will be sufficient, therefore, merely to name 
these directions. First, parents should recog- 
nise that the family is, by primary intent, an 
educational institution, and that its work can- 
not possibly be done by the Sunday school, the 
week-day school, or any agencies other than 
the parents or those who, because of the death 
or disability of parents, stand in their place. 
Second, life should be simplified by reducing 
the number of its interests so that time can be 
secured for family companionship. If a choice 
must be made between living with one's chil- 
dren and any competing interest, whether the 
increase of wealth, social enjoyments, even 
philanthrogic and religious activities, there 
should be no hesitation in choosing in favor of 



THE FAMILY 283^ 



one's own children. Third, if necessary, let 
some ingenuity and expense be devoted to de- 
vising home occupations for the children, es- 
pecially occupations in which parents and 
children share. No house is too good to be a 
workshop for boys and girls. On the other 
hand, no boy or girl should be above perform- 
ing simple household services. To be " above ' ' 
this is really to remain below it. In order to 
have his boy near him as much as possible, a 
professional gentleman, at considerable trou- 
ble to himself, provided in his own office 
steady occupation for specific days and 
hours of each week. Other parents specify 
simple daily tasks about the house for each 
child. In other cases, gardening, or carpen- 
try and cabinet work, or training in cookery 
and household care, are provided. Some par- 
ents, in order to cultivate a sense of the value 
of money, give no spending money to their 
children except in pay for definite labor. It 
need hardly be added that these physical 
means of training should be accompanied by 
fellowship in the reading of good literature. 
Reading aloud around the family hearth is an 
excellent means of cementing children and 
their parents. Fourth, let regular family de- 
votions be re-established. If daily devotions 



284 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

cannot be gotten into the day's routine, then 
let weekly devotions be held. It will almost 
always be found possible, however, to have at 
least short daily devotions. Grace before 
meat, could, if necessary, be expanded into the 
reading of a short passage of Scripture and 
the offering of a short prayer. The method 
of family devotions may well be varied, so as 
to avoid staleness and routine. To this end, 
printed prayers and responses will be found 
useful, either regularly or occasionally. 
Fifth, there must be specific home instruction 
in the truths of religion. But it will come 
most naturally in the form of conversation, 
rather than in the stereotyped mode of the 
catechism. The oftener it comes in response to 
the child's own questions, the better. It can 
easily be attached to the passages of Scripture 
that are dear to children as well as to adults. 
In this part of home training, of course, all 
the principles of instruction already unfolded 
in earlier chapters are applicable. Sixth, let 
the family, not the individual, be the unit of 
church membership. It is dangerous, often 
fatal, for the children to think of themselves 
as outside the religious fellowship which their 
parents enjoy. Some churches do already re- 
gard the children of members as likewise 



THE FAMILY 285 



within the church fellowship. This should 
be the case in all churches, and the fact should 
be made known to the children, so that they 
may always think of themselves as growing up 
within the church. 



CHAPTER XVII 

THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

158. Aim of the jn accordance with the 

Sunday School. ,. ^. „ i- 

entire conception oi reli- 
gious education thus far presented, the aim 
of the Sunday school may be defined as the 
normal development of the spiritual life of its 
pupils. This aim makes of the Sunday 
school, not a Bible school, but a school of re- 
ligion. The test of its efficiency at every 
point will be, not how much of the Bible the 
child has learned, but what the child has be- 
come.^ This aim will not exclude, but in- 
clude, moral training. To relegate moral 
training to the home and the public school, 
reserving the Sunday school for specifically 
spiritual culture,^ is to run some risk of not 
effecting the unification of religion and mor- 
als.^ It is true, as urged, that the Sunday 

^ See quotation from Munroe in § 8, note 1 ; also Burton 
and Mathews : Principles and Ideals for the Sunday 
School (Chicago, 1903), Part I, Chapter I ; Cf. The Sun- 
day-School Outlook (New York, 1901), page 56: "The 
purpose of the church in her teaching is not to educate 
a mind but to develop a life." 

* M. C. Brown : Sunday-School Movements In America 
(New York, 1901), page 178. 

' See the Preface of the present work. 



THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 287 

school, with its one hour a week, gives little 
opportunity for the practice of virtue, out of 
which alone sound moral training can be re- 
ceived. But the inference from this is that 
the active, all-the-week side of Sunday-school 
work should be further developed. 

159. Making the One of the chief prob- 

Sunday School a , , -, ,i o j 

School. Ig'^s before the Sunday 

school today is how to make 
of it a real school. The solution consists, in 
general, in the adoption of methods based 
upon psychological knowledge and the princi- 
ples of education. This statement, though it 
implies that the Sunday school is faulty, does 
not by any means condemn or express any 
cold appreciation of the history of this admir- 
able institution. It simply points out the op- 
portunity to make its future worthy of its 
past by developing its latent possibilities.^ 

1 since the early days of the Sunday school five dis- 
tinct advances have been made : 1. As to pupils, from 
neglected and vicious children to all classes of children, 
and even to adults. 2. As to teachers, from a few 
paid teachers to a vast army of men and women who 
give their services for Christ's sake. 3. As to scope of 
Instruction, from general education — reading, writing, 
etc. — to the Bible specifically. The Bible has also largely 
superseded the catechism. 4. As to method, from mem- 
orising texts to studying passages. 5. As to material, 
from random choices of Biblical passages to systematic, 
uniform lessons. 

Growing out of the Sunday-school movement, or at 
least connected with it, the following great gains have 
\ccrued to the church : 1. The teaching function of 
the church has received new and positive emphasis. 2. 
Each local church has acquired a specific organ for re- 



288 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

160. The Church As soon as we begin to 

contemplate the possibilities 
of the Sunday school as a school of religion, 
we discover that our problem widens out. For 
other church agencies, as the young people's 
society, are also attempting the religious de- 
velopment of the young. The Sunday-school 
problem, therefore, cannot be separated from 
that of co-ordinating and unifying the entire 
educational work of the local church. In- 
deed, we now reach the conception that the 
local church is, among other things, a school 
of religion, of which the Sunday school is sim- 
ply a department. The church as a school 
needs to be organised and systematised. All 
its work on behalf of the immature is, or 
should be, educational ; it should proceed from 
the developmental point of view. There 
should be a definite plan for the child from 
his infancy to the close of adolescence. This 
implies, finally, the organisation of the church 
and the family into educational unity. 

llglous education. 3. An army of workers has been 
enlisted. However defective their worl£ may be, the 
mere fact that laymen to the number of millions are 
regularly and systematically trying to do something for 
the young is of great moment. 4. A great number of 
young lives has been led to conscious discipleshlp, and 
the Bible has been carried to many an unchurched region. 
5. Christian union has been fostered through the- uni- 
form lesson system, the convention system, etc. 



THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 289 

161. Need of Siicli a scheme calls for 

Leadership. expert leadership. Of 

course, anyone who sees 
how to make any improvement whatever is to 
that extent an expert, and he should proceed 
at once to do what he can. Yet expert leader- 
ship in the strict sense is as necessary in the 
educational department of a church as in a 
public school or a steel mill. In most church- 
es the pastor must act as superintendent of 
education ; but in large churches this function 
is sometimes laid upon an assistant pastor 
who has received special training in educa- 
tion. Who shall be principal of the Sunday 
school is another matter. An experienced 
teacher or principal from some public school, 
or some intelligent business man with large ca- 
pacity for organisation, may often be secured 
for this position. But in any case, the head 
of the local church is likewise the head of its 
educational work. From him must come in 
large measure the setting of ideals and the in- 
spiration to work for them. Hence, one of 
the strategic positions now to be won is that 
all candidates for the Christian ministry 
should be trained in the principles of educa- 
tion.^ 

1 See address by Walter L. Hervey in the Proceedings 
of the Religious Education Association, 1903. It Is 



290 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

162. Training of A serious injustice is be- 

ing done to teachers in the 
Sunday school by demanding from them high- 
grade results while we neglect to furnish 
either proper tools for the work or proper 
training in its technical phases. Many 
schools have no teachers' library and no 
training class.^ The teachers are required to 
make bricks without straw. Even where a 
teachers' meeting is held its work is generally 
a mere hand-to-mouth study of the next Sun- 
day's lesson. 2 This is not the way to get 
sound educational principles into the Sunday 
school, or even to secure such knowledge of 
the Bible as every teacher should have. The 
teachers' training class should consider the 
following subjects: (1) The general princi- 

hlghly encouraging to find many theological schools intro- 
ducing courses in education. It foretells a time when 
this part of a clergyman's training will be attended to 
as carefully as his training in doctrine or church his- 
tory. For the special training of Sunday-school experts 
and all others who intend to malte a specialty of religious 
education there already exists one school, the Hartford 
School of Religious Pedagogy, at Hartford, Conn. 

1 At least one state Sunday-school association, that 
of Washington, is at work inducing the Sunday schools 
to purchase teachers' libraries. 

* Our fixed habits blind us to the seriousness of this 
question. A recent writer advises that once in several 
years the pastor organize a normal class, and he thinks 
that ten or fifteen studies of one hour each will be suf- 
ficient ! As to the art of teaching, he thinks that the 
essentials are a knowledge of the material and "the best 
possible way of expressing it." He then proceeds to 
ridicule the demand for a study of child-nature. — T. H. 
Pattison : The Ministry of the Sunday Scliool (Phila- 
delphia, 1902), pages 174-179. 



THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 291 

pies of education, with sufficient general psy- 
chology to make them clear and concrete. (2) 
The special psychology of religious develop- 
ment. (3) Special Sunday-school methods 
(kindergarten, primary, intermediate, etc.). 
(4) General introduction to the Bible, special 
introduction to its various books, and Bible 
history. (5) Cultivation of the personal spir- 
itual life The teachers' library should cover 
all these subjects, and in addition it should 
contain at least a small outfit of reference 
works on the Bible (Bible dictionary, com- 
mentaries, maps, etc.). 

163 Graded The need of grading the 

Sehools and -i i , 

Graded Lessons. pupils has long been recog- 
nised, but the principle that 
underlies it requires gradation of the lesson 
material also. That principle has been un- 
folded at length in Chapters VII, XIV, and 
XV. Mental development takes its start at 
every point in spontaneous interests; it pro- 
ceeds by assimilation or apperception, which 
depends upon preceding experience; finally, 
the spontaneous interests and the stock of ex- 
periences change from period to period. 
Hence, in order to adapt instruction to the 
growing pupil, the material presented to' him 
must be changed from time to time. This 



292 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

principle is already recognised in the Inter- 
national Lesson system in its provision for 
special lessons for the primary department. 
It is also recognised in the lesson system of the 
Bible Study Union, and in the "supplemental 
lessons" that are urged as an accompaniment 
of the International Lessons. But in none of 
these is the principle fully adopted. Several 
systems of fully graded lessons, however, are 
already in use here and there,^ the number of 
schools using such lessons is increasing, and 
several educators of experience have been for 
some time carefully studying the problem of 
constructing a complete Sunday-school curric- 
ulum that shall be adapted to the stages of 
growth. There is little reason to doubt that, 
gradually, with due regard to existing cus- 
toms and usages, the International and other 
systems will adopt fully graded curricula. 

164. Methods of For the grading of pu- 

Grading Pupils. ., ,. ,. ■ r. j n 

pils, as distinguished irom 

the grading of lesson material, either of two 
principles may be used. One of them is based 
directly upon the periods of mental develop- 
ment. This basis yields at once three main 
divisions or departments, representing respee- 

^ See address of D. S. Ullrick in the Proceedings of the 
Religious Education Association, 1904. 



THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 293 

tively infancy and childhood, adolescence 
(early and middle), and adult life (later ado- 
lescence included).^ The reason for including 
later adolescence in the adult division is that 
at this period youths assume adult responsibil- 
ities and receive therefrom the closing part of 
their general education.^ The second method 
of grading pupils is simply to transfer to the 
church school the set of grades now prevailing 
in the public schools. This is a simple, prac- 
ticable scheme, and it has the advantage of ex- 
ternally representing to both the child and 
the teacher the unity of education.^ In larger 
schools, at least, it is well to have a superin- 

1 See Chapters XIV and XV. 

' It Is desirable, of course, that each department ex- 
cept the third be subdivided Into as many parts as the 
years that it includes, so that the pupil may malce def- 
Ipite advance from one grade to another each year. A 
simple organisation based upon the periods of growth 
would be as follows : I. Primary Department, to and 
Including the age of eleven. II. Intermediate De- 
partment, twelve to eighteen Inclusive. III. Adult De- 
partment, nineteen onwards. A more elaborate organ- 
isation on the same basis would be as follows : I. 
Cradle Roll, composed of Infants not old enough to at- 
tend Sunday school, but enrolled as members. II. 
Kindergarten, from four to six inclusive. III. Primary 
Department, seven to eleven Inclusive. IV. Intermediate 
(or Junior) Department, twelve to fifteen inclusive. V. 
Senior Department, sixteen to eighteen Inclusive. VI. 
Graduate Department, nineteen onwards. 

' A simple organisation upon this basis would be as 
follows : I. Cradle Roll. II. Kindergarten. III. El- 
ementary School, seven to thirteen or fourteen. IV. 
Secondary School, fourteen or fifteen to eighteen. V. 
The Church College, nineteen onwards. If desired, the 
Elementary School can easily be subdivided into a 
Primary (seven to ten), and a Junior (eleven to thirteen 
or fourteen) Department. 



294 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

tendent for each department, so that its spe- 
cial problems may be studied, and the respon- 
sibility of management be fixed and definite. 
In addition to the departments named, an 
Extension Department may be organised for 
the promotion of Bible study at home or in 
other places outside the Sunday-school rooms. ^ 

165. structure of Whatever the method of 

the Curriculum. ,. ,, ., , 

grading the pupils, the 

gradation of lesson material should be based 
upon the periods of mental development, but 
with clear recognition of the spiritual aim of 
the school, and indeed of the possibility of 
making it Christian from beginning to end.^ 
The tabular view herewith presented exhibits 
the results of a few typical attempts to con- 
struct a curriculum upon the general basis of 
the periods of development. 

Of course a tabular view like this must omit 

^ A study of the advantages of grading pupils will be 
found in J. L. Hurlbut : Seven Graded Sunday Schools 
(New York: Eaton & Mains). 

* See Chapter XIII, § | 120-122. It seems to be a fact 
that interest in the New Testament, especially the Gost 
pels and the Acts, becomes acute not far from the end 
of early adolescence. This is the time when we should 
expect the inner life of Christ and the apostles to be- 
come Interesting. But it by no means follows that study 
of the life of Christ should be postponed to adolescence. 
The proper inference is rather that other aspects of 
his life should be studied in the earlier periods. See 
George B. Dawson's article on "Children's Interest in 
the Bible," in the Pedagogical Seminary. Volume VII, 
page 151 ; also addresses by L. T. Cole and Samuel T. 
Dutton In The Sunday-School Outlook (New York, 1901). 



AGES 


1 
Burton and Mathews 


First Union Presbyterian 
Sunday-School, New York 


AG 


3 

to 
8 


Stories— Play— Picture- Work 


Stories— Texts— I^ord's Prayer 


t 
e 


7 


Biblical and other Stories 
Topically Arranged— 
Pictures— Verses 


Nature and Wonder-Stories — 
Texts— Ps. 23 


m 


8 


O. T. Stories— Texts— Short Form 
of Commandments 


£ 


9 


O. T. Heroes— Ps. 1, 19— Command- 
ments — Memory Passages 


S 


10 


Books of the Bible 


I,ife of Christ— Texts— Apostles' 
Creed — Beatitudes 


K 


11 


I,ife of Jesus 


O. T. History, Moses to Samuel — 
Sayings of Jesus— Missionary 
Stories— Proverbs— Biography 


1 


12 


Old-Testament Heroes 


O. T. History, David tc Isaiah- 
Sayings of Jesus — Proverbs — 
Missionary Biography 


1' 


13 


I,ives of the Apostles 


O. T. History, Jeremiah to Christ- 
Sayings of Jesus, Paul, Prophets — 
I Cor, 13 — Missionary Biography 


1 1 


14 


I Samuel 
Gospel of Mark 


I<ife of Christ— Readings— Ex- 
positions — Missionary Biography 


l< 


15 


Isaiah, Chaps. 1-12 
Acts, Chaps. 1-12 


Apostolic Historj'— Outlines 
Church History — Missionary 
Biograph}'— Church Heroes 


M 


16 


The Psalms 

I Peter— Acts, Chaps. 13-28 


Teachings of Jesus— Outlines 
Church History — Biography 


H 


17 


Old Testament History Begun 


Teachings of Apostles— Church 
History — Biography 


i: 


18 


Old Testament History Completed 


Teachings of the Prophets 


It 


19 


I<ife and Teachings of Jesus 


Elective 
Courses 


l{ 


20 

on 


Apostolic Age — 
Elective Courses 


2< 

ot 



1 Principles and Ideals for the Sunday School (Chi- 
cago, 1903). 

2 An outline of this course, with suggestions as to text- 
books, may be had by sending a request therefor to the 



New York 
Sunday-School Commission 


3 
Haslett 


AGES 




Biblical Stories— Myths— Nature- 
Study^Real-I<ife Stories 


3 

to 
6 


Biblical Stories 
Topically Arranged — 


Studies from Nature— Bible Scenes 
and Characters — Other I,iterature 

Biographies — Realistic Studies 
in the L,ife of Christ 


7 
8 


Pictures 


O. T. History (to the Return)— 
Biography from Old and New 

Testaments — 
I,ife of Christ in Outline— 
Nature— General Biography, His- 
tory and lyiterature — 
Acts (Brief Studies) 


9 


Catechism — Prayer-Book — 
The Church Year 


10 


Old Testament Stories 


1 1 


Old Testament Stories 


Biographies from both Testaments 
and from Christian and other 
History — 
History of Israel in its Entirety — 
Character and Teachings of Christ- 
Studies in Acts — The Age of 

Chivalry — Biblical Poetry — 
I^iterature 


12 


I^ife of Christ 


13 


Christian Ethics 


14 


Christian Doctrine 


Prophets, Missionaries, I,ife, 
Times and Character of Christ — 

Studies in History and Biog- 
raphy — 

History of Entire Bible — 

Biblical Poetry— History of Church 
— I<iterature— Acts and Epistles 


16 


Teachings of Christ or 
Old Testament History 


16 


Apostolic Church 


17 


Church History — Missions 


Normal Courses and 

Elective Studies 


18 


Teaching Methods 


19 
20 

on 



Sunday School Commission, 29 Lafayette Place, New 
York. 

' S. B. Haslett : The Pedagogical Bible School (New 
York, 1903). 



THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 299 

many details. Yet even this outline is won- 
drously suggestive. First of all, it suggests 
the wealth of material that is at the disposal 
of the Sunday school. The whole revelation 
of God as it is set forth in Bible history, in 
the history of the church, in general history 
and literature, and in nature, is proper sub- 
ject-matter for instruction. In the next 
place, we are here reminded of the exceeding 
value of stories and biographies in character- 
formation. Finally, we discern, from the 
general agreement of curricula arising from 
different sources, that a practical working 
principle for the gradation of lessons has been 
reached. The material is so abundant that 
variations in details are to be expected. It is 
also to be remembered that age-limits can be 
fixed with only a general approximation to 
accuracy. Yet the general order of studies 
is clearly marked. Beginning with detached 
stories and texts, it passes on to more con- 
nected stories, history, and biographies. Sub- 
jectively this is the passage from imagination 
to memory and reason. Developing still fur- 
ther in this direction, the curriculum goes on 
fi-om history and biography as relatively ex- 
ternal occurrence to the moral and spiritual 
principles contained therein. At the end 



300 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

come normal courses and elective courses 
which bring the pupil into immediate contact 
with present life as viewed in the light of 
God's revelation of himself.^ 

166. The Use of a Concerning the use of a 

Curriculum. , , . , 

graded curriculum, two or 
three remarks may be made. In the first 
place, no course of study will teach itself, or 
make up for defective methods, or for defec- 
tive personality in the teacher. The trained 
teacher of high and attractive personal qual- 
ities is the key to the situation, whatever be 
the curriculum, though, of course, he may be 
seriously hindered or helped by ill or well 
adapted material. In the next place, any 
part of an outline of study may succeed or 
fail according to the filling that is given it. 
In particular, studies the purpose of which is 
largely formal, as learning the names of 
the books of the Bible, can be made most 

* It is to be hoped that the next International Sunday- 
School Convention will take at least two more steps 
toward providing a system of graded lessons. The first 
step has already been taken by providing special primary 
lessons. The next step is to provide connected and sys- 
tematic courses for older pupils, say of the age of eighteen 
or more. A third step is to provide hero-study courses 
(with Jesus as the central figure) for early adolescence. 
Upon the proper content of such courses there would 
probably be little serious difference of opinion. It is 
not too early to provide graded work for these three 
stages, representing the beginning, the middle, and the 
end of the curriculum. The intermediate parts would 
then be gradually filled in as experience shows the way. 



THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 301 

successful only when the form is acquired 
through an interesting content. For ex- 
ample, the year in the books of the . Bible 
recommended by Burton and Mathews is 
not a year of dry drill, but of interest- 
ing readings selected from the various 
books so as to show what they are like. So 
with memoriter work : it should be the active 
expression of the pupil's interest in the con- 
tent of the passage. Again, the success of the 
Sunday-school curriculum will depend, in a 
measure, upon the degree with which it is co- 
ordinated with the week-day school curricu- 
lum and the other occupations of the pupil. 
The Sunday school is not an isolated and self- 
completed whole, but a part of a larger whole. 
Hence, biblical poetry should be brought into 
direct connection with other poetry, biblical 
geography and history with other geography 
and history, and so on. In general, the teach- 
er will do well to know what his pupils' week- 
day occupations and interests are. Finally, as 
the purpose of the school is that the child shall 
grow in spiritual life, all the technical aspects 
of teaching should be warmed and vitalised by 
the teacher's own sense of God's presence. So, 
also, the act of acquisition on the part of the 
pupil should be associated with worship and 



302 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

with active service of one's fellows. Is it not 
time, for instance, to cease holding opening 
and closing "exercises" and to substitute 
therefor opening and closing worship in name 
and in fact? 

167. Materials for "^6 havB Seen that im- 

Impression. . , 

pression and expression go 
together in good teaching. We shall next in- 
quire, therefore, into the available material, 
other than the personality of the teacher, for 
making vivid and correct impressions. (1) 
First comes the school itself — its order, its 
combination of good cheer with serious work, 
its reverential worship.^ A disorderly, irrev- 
erent, or scolding teacher or officer misrepre- 
sents religion in his own person. The educa- 
tional effect of pupils' conduct upon one an- 
other, too, is so great that discipline of the 
right sort must be maintained at any cost — 
not the discipline of suppression, but of free- 
dom in appropriate occupations. Nothing will 
contribute more to good order than providing 
appropriate expressive activities such as will 
be described in the next section. A pupil 

1 The influence of good and bad Sunday-school music 
deserves more attention than it has received. See M. C. 
Brown: Sunday-School Movements in America (New 
York, 1901), pages 199-207; also an article by Frederica 
Beard, "Religious Instruction by Sunday-School Hymns," 
In the Biblical World, Volume XVI, page 18. 



THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 303 

who will not conform to necessary order 
should be excluded as in other schools. 

(2) In the work of Bible teaching, the Bi- 
ble itself, not a leaf or a quarterly, is the 
prime material. Nowhere else does a pupil 
study a body of literature by the lesson-leaf 
system. The fragmentariness of the Bible 
passages, the unpedagogic questions and ap- 
plications, the gew-gaw printing, and the 
flimsiness of the entire article, condemn the 
present style of lesson leaf. The leaf, wheth- 
er printed or otherwise manifolded, should 
give simply directions for study, with (per- 
haps) spaces for written replies to questions 
to be hunted up at home, outline maps to be 
filled in or colored, and space for pasting the 
lesson picture as described in the next sec- 
tion. 

(3) The library which should contain ref- 
erence books for Bible study, material for the 
study of Christian history and biography, 
particularly books of missionary experience 
and adventure, and such wholesome literature 
as is not otherwise provided for the pupils. 
Any general literature that is worth reading 
may properly have a place in the Sunday- 
school library, but the home, the public 
library, and the Sunday-school library will do 



304 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

well to co-operate with one another so as to 
avoid waste. The old fashioned goody-goody 
Sunday-school book should be excluded as es- 
sentially a corrupter (because a weakener) of 
character.^ 

(4) Maps and pictures. Modern methods 
of reproducing pictures has made it possible 
to secure good pictorial illustrations of almost 
any biblical scene or event at a cost ranging 
from half a cent apiece upward. Many of 
these pictures, being copies of the world's 
great masterpieces, help to develop the 
aesthetic sense and to bring it into unity with 
religious feeling. A recent and promising de- 
velopment in the use of pictures is the study 
of biblical geography with the help of the 
stereoscope. 2 

168. Expressive Next comes the provision 

Activities. „ . mi • • 

tor expression. This in- 
cludes : ( 1 ) The hunting up and writing out 
of answers to significant questions. (2) Tell- 
ing the story in one's own words, writing it 
out, or writing simple essays and examina- 
tion papers. (3) Coloring maps and pic- 

1 See Chapter X, § 92. 

' Information with regard to pictures, maps, and other 
aids can be obtained from the Sunday-School Commis- 
sion, 29 Lafayette Place, New Yorlv. On the use of the 
stereoscope, see a pamphlet by W. B. Forbush : The Il- 
luminated Lessons on the Life of Jesus (New York: 
Underwood & Underwood). 



THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 305 

tures, filling in the details of outline maps, or 
constructing maps to illustrate the lessons. 
In addition to maps drawn on paper, relief 
maps are made of sand, clay, and paper pulp.^ 
(4) Pasting pictures illustrative of the lesson, 
and preserving all one's written or picture 
work for the year or other period in a port- 
folio or note-book. (5) Making drawings or 
constructing symbolic objects with which to 
illustrate the lesson. A course in which boys 
construct miniature tents, altars, city walls, 
shepherds' crooks, and the like is said to have 
been successful." (6) Participation in wor- 
ship. (7) Giving money or other property. 
The collection should be educational in char- 
acter. Hence the money collected should be a 
gift to some person or cause outside the 
school, and the pupils should give definite 
study to the object of the gift. (8) Service 
of others, such as visiting sick pupils, provid- 
ing flowers or delicacies for the sick, and 
sharing books, toys, and other good things 
with neglected children. (9) Elective courses 
for the- adult department. Electing a course 
may make the whole of it a means of self- 

^ For information apply to the Sunday-School Com- 
mission, 29 Lafayette Place, New York. 

2 Information as to this course for boys can be had 
from the International Committee of Young Men's 
Christian Associations, 3 West 29th Street, New York. 



306 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

expression. (10) Organised classes, in which 
the pupils elect officers, adopt a constitution, 
and carry out various self-chosen activities 
more or less directly connected with the cen- 
tral work of Sunday-school instruction. These 
activities may be social, athletic, philanthrop- 
ic, or evangelistic. Organising a class of ado- 
lescent boys into a club is sometimes the most 
direct way to secure their attendance and in- 
terest.^ 

169. The Sunday That attendance at Sun- 

Public Worship. ^^y school should not be a 
substitute for public wor- 
ship is clear, for any such substitution tends 
to prevent the child from realising his unity 
with the whole church. But how to effect a 
connection between the school and public 
worship is a difficult problem. Some pastors 
hold once a week or once a month a chil- 
dren's Sunday service like that of the grown 
parishioners.^ Others adapt a part of each 

^ By means of a club, with social and athletic features, 
the whole boy may be touched. See Chapter XVIII. 
For a description of several large adult classes, and 
references to further information, see F. G. Cressey : 
The Church and Young Men (Chicago, 1903), page 64. 
It is said that the Presbyterian base-ball clubs of Chi- 
cago are a distinct power in opposition to Sunday base- 
balL 

' Examples : Maplewood Congregational Church, Mai- 
den, Mass. ( boys' and girls' preaching service monthly 
at 4 P. M.) ; Tabernacle Congregational Church, Chicago 
("The Children's Church" every Sunday afternoon). 



THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 307 

service to the cliildren, apparently assum- 
ing that the remainder of the service need 
contain nothing for them. A third plan is to 
make the entire service so broadly human, so 
simple and direct, that children as well as 
adults will find meaning in it.^ Where such 
is the case some special methods of stimulating 
atendance may be useful.^ 

170. Decision -Day With the coming of ado- 
lescence the Sunday school 
should help the pupil to attain a healthy re- 
ligious self-consciousness and to enter upon 
deliberate devotion to the kingdom. This is 
to be understood as including the attainment 
of formal membership in the church.^ To 
this end decision-day has been instituted. The 
name is unfortunate, for it implies previous 
indecision or even opposition. Yet it is prop- 
er for the youth now to ratify his early train- 
ing by deliberately acknowledging allegiance 
to Christ and the church. Special days for 
bringing this process to a focus are also use- 
ful, provided proper conditions are met. (1) 

^ See W. B. Forbush : The Boy Problem (Boston, 
1901), page 163. 

^ See G. W. Mead : Modern Methods in Sunday-School 
Work (New York, 1903), Chapter XII. This book is 
scarcely less than a whole museum of Sunday-school 
methods and devices, with much sound principle in the 
discussion of them. 

» See Chapter XV, § 143. 



308 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 



Decision-day should not stand for a mere 
spurt of special concern on the part of teacher 
or parent ; it should mark the focus of a con- 
stant attitude. (2) It should not be detached 
from the work of steady development. It 
should be a stage of such development, like 
promotion from one grade to another. Any- 
thing done by pupils of twelve to fifteen un- 
der the sudden pressure of strong emotion is 
likely to be unimportant— if, indeed, it does 
not ultimately discourage and repel. The pu- 
pil should be prepared for the day by special 
instruction as to its significance and the priv- 
ilege for which it stands. (3) Decision-day 
methods are unadapted to pupils below ten, 
and they are unsafe with pupils under eleven 
or twelve. Yet the younger pupils may be 
taught to look forward to a day when they, 
too, shall be ready for public commitment. 
(4) Parents, teachers, and pastor should all 
co-operate. This will necessitate careful in- 
struction of parents and of teachers long in 
advance of the day itself. ( 5 ) The day should 
be followed by specific instruction as to 
the nature and duties of discipleship 
and of membership in the church. This is 
the work of the pastor's class, which should 
be in the closest relation to the Sunday school. 



THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 309 

In some churches the pastor becomes for a 
series of weeks the regular teacher of classes 
of young adolescents. Here is where catechet- 
ical instruction or some equivalent therefor 
should begin. (6) Finally, it is of peculiar 
importance that catechumens should be led to 
the expression of their religious aspirations 
and purposes in the form of helpful -service.^ 

171. Catechetics. Catechetical instruction 

has for its immediate aim 
to acquaint the pupil with the special history, 
doctrines, and usages of his own church. For 
reasons already given, the old-fashioned 
catechism is not adapted to any part of edu- 
cational work.^ Whatever be the subject of 
study, a set of rigidly formulated questions 
and answers tends to interfer-e with the vital 

1 See Chapter VIII, § § 68-74. 

* See Chapter X, § 88. "The Church Catechism [Protes- 
tant Episcopal] was uever intended to be a pedagogical 
guide to the teaching of religion. It is probably the most 
admirable plain statement of the fundamental truths of 
the spiritual life in existence, but it is quite fragmentary 
and disconnected in its structure, and occasional in its 
origin." — Rev. L. T. Cole in The Sunday-School Outlook 
(New York, 1901), page 49. "Whether they [catechisms] 
were more beneficial than harmful may be questioned. 
They drew the children away from the personal life and 
teachings of the Lord Jesus "to the intellectual process of 
committing to memory long dogmatic definitions. They 
gave more play to the head than to the heart. And, 
in time, as might have been expected, the catechising 
stiffened into a mechanical round of question and an- 
swer. The soul went out of it." — G. B. Willcox : The 
Pastor and his Flock (New York. 1890), pages 115f. 
See a symposium on catechisms in the Biblical World, 
Volume XVI, page 166. 



310 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

process of assimilation. Nevertheless there is 
need of accurate formute as a means of de- 
fining and fixing ideas. The problem, there- 
fore, concerns the material to be formulated 
and the best means of teaching it. The gen- 
eral principle is that the material itself, the 
fact or the truth, should be taught rather than 
the formula. That is, the formula enters as 
a means of expressing something of which the 
pupil already recognises the truth or the real- 
ity. The technical formulas of Christian 
faith, accordingly, should be postponed until 
something of the depth of the Christian ex- 
perience has revealed itself, that is, until later 
adolesenee. In early and middle adolescence, 
more simple and directly practical formulas 
should be used.^ 

172. The Teacher An essential condition of 

Himself. , t ■ • 

success m catechising, as m 

all religious teaching, is that the teacher, 
whether the pastor or some other person, 
should be alive, and should impart his life to 
the pupil. A living teacher is more, too, than 
an able drill-master, though to be a really ef- 
fective drill-master is no small thing. The 
best teacher is one in whom the pupil feels the 

^ A short list of catechisms constructed with reference 
to these needs will be found Chapter X, § 88, note. 



THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 311 

presence of religion as a concrete, natural, 
and attractive thing. The pupil should feel 
that he is dealing with realities from begin- 
ning to end, and that the symbols imparted to 
him are really attained through his own ef- 
fort. An old writer on pastoral theology re- 
marks that catechising is undoubtedly instruc- 
tion, "but it is more properly an initiation 
into the sacred mystery of the Christian life." 
It should therefore, include action, and have 
the character of worship.^ This is equally 
true of the best Sunday-school teaching in 
general. It is an initiation of the pupil into 
sacred things, and initiation is a process of 
admitting one to a society of persons, a fel- 
lowship. Many persons have been asked to 
say what in their experience as Sunday-school 
pupils most influenced them for good. The 
reply — apparently the invariable reply — has 
been, "The personality of the teacher rather 
than the content of formal instruction." 
Nothing in the way of methods or devices can 
take the place of wholesome, winning person- 
ality, a personality that actually lives in the 
realities of the Christian experience and truly 
admits pupils into the fellowship of this life. 

1 A. Vinet : Pastoral Theology (New York, 1856), pages 
230f. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



SOCIETIES AND CLUBS 



173. Significance During the last half cen- 

People's tury and more there have 

Movement. ^ave been few religious 

movements as significant as 
the formation of religious organisations of 
youths and of young men and young women. 
The movement is a general one. It includes 
the Young Men's Christian Associations, the 
Young Women's Christian Associations, the 
Christian Endeavor Society and the various 
denominational young people's societies with 
their offshoots, the junior and intermediate 
societies, and unnumbered local clubs and or- 
ganised classes. For some of these organisa- 
tions there are special reasons, as the increas- 
ing number of young men and young women 
who are living in cities away from their 
homes, but underneath the whole movement 
is the great sustaining fact of the rapid 
growth of the social impulse during the 
adolescent years.^ This of itself is a suf- 

^ The late coming of young people's organisations is 
due to circumstances. Tiiey waited for favorable con- 
ditions. In tlie latter half" of the nineteenth century 



SOCIETIES AND CLUBS 313 

ficient reason why religion should take on 
socialised forms in the days of youth. But 
these societies are not merely a spontaneous 
form in which religion clothes itself ; they are, 
or should be, essentially and of design institu- 
tions for the religious education of their 
members. To succor the distressed, seek the 
erring, support the enterprises of the church, 
study the Bible, and cultivate spirituality is 
good of itself, of course, yet these very activi- 
ties can and should be so organised and di- 
rected as to be soundly educational. 

174. How these The great educational 

Societies . . , . ,, , , 

Educate. principle m all such volun- 

tary organisations is that of 
self-expression. Here is also opportunity for 
making fresh impressions of many kinds, but 
the distinctive fact is or should be self-origi- 
nating activities in religion. Such activities 
do not exclude mature leadership any more 
than the self-activity of school pupils renders 
a teacher superfluous. In fact, the movement 
toward voluntary organisations of youth may 

there was a tendency toward a vital and practical rather 
than dogmatic conception of religious life ; there was new 
emphasis upon the social aspects of the gospel : a milder 
conception of authority in both education and religion 
gave new scope to the powers of the young ; finally, there 
was a general awakening of these powers through popu- 
lar education, through industrial conditions, and through 
revival movements like those of Mr. Moody and Pro- 
fessor Drummond. 



314 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

be looked upon as a rough way of supplying 
the educational factor that has been so great- 
ly lacking in the churches. Here is effort to 
put preaching into practice, and to supple- 
ment the impressions of the Sunday school by 
active expression. More specifically, here is 
culture of social virtues, such as respect for 
the rights and opinions of others, and the 
habit of co-operation. Through self-govern- 
ment there grows a habit of deliberation and 
a sense of responsibility. Through deeds of 
mercy and of helpfulness the heart and the 
will acquire a permanent set toward the great 
principle of brotherhood. Churchly activi- 
ties of many kinds give the youth a sense of 
being a real part of the church. Being sur- 
rounded by persons of about his own age, he 
acquires ability to speak with greater freedom 
upon matters of religion. Some of these or- 
ganisations, as we shall see, are imbued with 
the idea of symmetrical or all 'round devel- 
opment, and most of them extend their activ- 
ities into several departments. The resulting 
tendency is to give concreteness to religion 
and to avoid the break between religion and 
everyday life that is so deadening to many 
efforts for religious education. It should be 
added, perhaps, that here as everywhere ac- 



SOCIETIES AND CLUBS 315 

tivity needs to be directed by intelligence. 
Either in the society itself or elsewhere its 
members must be instructed and duly im- 
pressed with the true proportions of things. 
For example, here is an excellent place for 
cultivating missionary zeal, yet such zeal 
should always rest upon definite study of mis- 
sionary facts. 

175. Neglect of In some degree the edu- 

the Educational ,. . . i , .i 

Idea. cational, or at least the 

training, idea of young peo- 
ple 's societies is generally recognised. Yet 
the full scope of this idea has rarely been 
seen. The effort to have an active society is 
rarely accompanied by proportional effort 
to direct activity toward truly educational 
ends. Confining our attention for the mo- 
ment to a single class of organisations, those 
commonly called young people's societies, we 
may say that they have had an undue amount 
of immature leadership. Not seldom the 
crude religious ideas of the readiest talker 
among the members are proclaimed as the au- 
thoritative voice of Ploly Scripture or of Al- 
mighty God. In many societies there pre- 
vails a narrow and dogmatic spirit; in some, 
the cultivation of one-sided, or even morbid, 
spiritual life ; here and there activity has been 



316 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

SO far separated from reflection that the so- 
ciety's life is made up of a shallow pitter- 
patter of pious sounds and acts. Sometimes 
the opportunity for publicity or for office 
turns the mind of a member away from the 
really serious concerns of life. Now and 
then, under the influence of older persons, a 
local society, or even a number of such so- 
cieties, thoughtlessly takes a partisan attitude 
with respect to some question that divides the 
sentiment of the church. Not uncommonly 
the pastor finds that he has a church within a 
church, a body that is not only self-governing 
and self-taught, but also too self-sufficient for 
young persons who are still in process of be- 
ing educated. 

Further, the proper age limits of these so- 
cieties has not always been noted. These 
limits are determined for us by nature her- 
self. They coincide with the limits of adoles- 
cence. Though the bounds of adolescence arc 
not absolutely fixed, it is safe to say that 
there is no sufficient reason for societies and 
clubs much before the age of twelve or after 
the age of thirty. Within this period there 
will naturally be two, or possibly three 
groups. Later adolescence will furnish the 
members for one group, the senior society, and 



SOCIETIES AND CLUBS 317 

early and middle adolescence the members for 
the junior society, or for a junior and an in- 
termediate society. In present practice, how- 
ever, persons far beyond adolescence mingle 
with the youth of the senior society and take 
away from it its distinctive character and 
function. On the other hand, little children 
are gathered into the junior society as though 
organisation per se were the end in view. One 
consequence is the tendency to over-stimula- 
tion of little children. It is difficult to dis- 
cover any adequate reason why they should 
be expected to participate in devotional meet- 
ings as older persons do. When such children 
are still further stimulated by the excitement 
of publicity or of leadership, the effect cannot 
be regarded as anything short of pernicious.^ 

176. Unify the Reference has been made 

Forces* 

in the last chapter to the ne- 
cessity of unifying the entire educational 
work of the local church. Viewed from the 
standpoint of system and economy of force, 
the present condition is chaotic. Between the 
Sunday school, the various societies, the cate- 
chumen's class, and the public worship there 

1 Not long since there was advertised in a certain city 
a junior rally for boys and girls of which one of the 
attractions was that a little girl of seven years was to 
lead the devotional service ! 



318 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

is no clearly recognised principle of differen- 
tiation or of co-ordination. There is over- 
lapping in membership and in function. The 
same young persons are carrying on Bible 
study in their society and in the Sunday 
school without effecting any connection be- 
tween the two plans of study as to course, 
method or administration. These societies are 
also conducting prayer-meetings whose rela- 
tion to the weekly prayer-meeting of the 
church is not unambiguous. They are likewise 
holding Sunday meetings that clearly compete 
with the evening worship. This confusion re- 
sults in large measure from the lack of a defi- 
nite educational idea. Order will be restored, 
whenever the church recognises itself as a 
school, provides for itself an educational head 
(either the pastor or someone else), and pro- 
ceeds to plan the church school as other 
schools are planned. One immediate result 
of such planning will be the fusing of the 
various systems of Bible study. One of the 
reasons why the Sunday school has a competi- 
tor in the societies is the lack of specific adap- 
tation of the Sunday-school curriculum to cer- 
tain stages of development. When this defect 
is removed there will be no essential reason 
for the competition. 



SOCIETIES AND CLUBS 319 

177. The Juniors Pursuing the same prin- 

and the Sunday . , i i i i i i 

School. ciple, we should probably 

find that the junior and 
intermediate societies could easily attain 
all their ends in a Sunday school prop- 
erly organised and managed. These so- 
cieties exist largely for the sake of direct 
spiritual culture. But is not this the aim 
of the Sunday school also? If the Sun- 
day school were to broaden out into a school 
of religion, it would provide for direct spir- 
itual impressions and for spiritual self-expres- 
sion appropriate to each stage of growth. It 
would lead young adolescents to self-commit- 
ment to Christ and to membership in the 
church. Why, then, should not the junior 
society become identical with the correspond- 
ing department of the school ? Meetings other 
than those of the general school could be held 
whenever they were needed; officers could be 
elected and committees appointed ; in fact, 
everything that is now done by the society 
as a split-off body could be done fully as well 
by a department of the school. The result 
would be great economy of energy on the 
part of adults, and positive gain in the unity 
of the pupil's consciousness. 



320 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

178. The Young "With the later adolescents 

People and the v i! ^i 

Sunday School. who form the semor young 
people's society the case is 
not quite the same. Though their Bible 
classes should become a part of the adult di- 
vision of the school, the organisation as a 
whole could not coalesce with that division. 
The adult classes contain persons widely vary- 
ing in age, and in a department where elective 
courses are offered this is to be expected. 
Further, in later adolescence we reach a stage 
of life in which proper education requires 
much in the way of initiative, organisation, 
and responsibility. Here we have young citi- 
zens who, so to speak, are just beginning to 
vote and to carry the other burdens of citi- 
zenship. Their society is their practice school, 
and it will probably remain as a permanent 
part of our system of religious education. 
What it needs is to become a part of a system 
which shall embrace also the Sunday school. 
It would then be given mature leadership. 
This does not imply any diminution of spon- 
taneity or of self-originating activity, but 
rather the utilisation for educational purposes 
of the whole principle of spontaneous self- 
expression. As everywhere else in education, 
so here the central need is such leadership as 



SO.CIETIES AND CLUBS 321 

grows out of the genuine mingling of mature 
and immature life. Until we adopt the educa- 
tional idea and secure such leadership we may- 
expect the young people's society to remain 
un-eoordinated and more or less intractable. 
179. Vows and An educational problem 

® ^^^' of some importance has 

arisen through the adoption by various young 
people's societies of a vow or pledge as a con- 
dition of membership, or at least of active 
membership. The problem is this: What is 
the effect upon character of taking a vow (or 
promising to God) to perform an act that is 
not of essential and invariable moral author- 
ity, or to refrain from an act that is not essen- 
tially contrary to moral principle? Why 
should one lay upon one's conscience what is 
not laid upon it by Christ himself? On the 
face of it such a vow contradicts the liberty 
wherewith Christ has made us free from legal- 
ism. It introduces an artificial factor where 
Christ would give us only life. This infringe- 
ment upon Christian liberty, and this arti- 
ficiality, make trouble in various ways. Some 
young persons of Christian character refuse 
to give up their Christian liberty of judgment 
and choice with respect to matters indifferent 
or disputable. Many others make the promise 



322 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

but still assert their liberty by violating it. 
Some obey it, but in so doing tliey are in 
danger of forming an artificial conscience, 
that is, a conscience that cannot be relied upon 
to discriminate between principle and rule, 
end and means, eternal righteousness and the 
opinions of men. Those who promise and then 
violate their word disorganise the moral fat- 
uity itself, moral perception becomes dull, and 
impulse seizes the scepter. 

If the promise be understood as a pledge to 
men rather than as a vow to God, it will still 
educate in the wrong way unless it is en- 
forced. The educational value of any rule, 
whether self-imposed or not, grows out of the 
enforcement of it. An unenforced rule not 
only falls into disrespect ; it drags law as such 
into the same disrespect. The simple fact is 
that underneath any society that exacts a 
pledge and then fails to enforce it there is a 
static conception of life where there should bo 
the dynamic, developmental idea. The great 
achievement is not so much to get young per- 
sons to do certain things and refrain from 
others, as to develop such individual judgment 
and conscience as will fit them for correct 
self-guidance. 



SOCIETIES AXn CLUBS 323 

180. Boys' and Qf the various types of 

Girls' Clubs. , u r u j • i 

clubs for boys and girls- 
church clubs, settlement clubs, street-boys' 
clubs, mass-clubs and small-group clubs— it is 
not necessary to speak except to state their 
central principle. In general, such clubs not 
only furnish wholesome occupation for time 
that might otherwise be misused, but also 
opportunity for enlarged self-expression, es- 
pecially under the influence and with the 
friendship of a mature leader. It is impos- 
sible to estimate the benefit to character that 
comes from such clubs, even from clubs that 
are meagrely equipped and blunderingly man- 
aged. If there is only a really wholesome 
mature personality around which the youth 
gather, the essential work begins. It needs for 
its proper growth, however, a variety of means 
for self-expression. An instructive illustra- 
tion of the principles involved may be found 
in the junior departments of the Young Men's 
Christian Associations. Here the fully 
avowed idea is all 'round development, which 
is properly assumed to imply development in 
the Christian life. The center is the person- 
ality of the leader, who is expected to work 
with his boys, not merely for them. He takes 
an interest in what interests them, promotes 



S24 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

their games and plays, assists them in con- 
structive activities, and also leads them in 
Bible study and religious reflection and activ- 
ity. The gymnasium, that el dorado of every 
live boy, is made a means of physical develop- 
ment as well as of play. The Christian spirit 
is assumed here, as it is also on the playground 
and in the summer camp, as well as in the 
religious meeting. As a result the boy gets 
the idea that religion is life and life religion. 
It would be extravagant to expect this rela- 
tively new movement to solve all our boy 
problems at once, yet it certainly sheds a 
bright light Avhere illumination was and is 
needed. It represents a true evangelism to 
the young.^ The naturalness and spontaneity 
of its methods and activities raises the ques- 
tion whether, in other types of club, there has 
not been needless reserve respecting religion. 

^ There is no danger of diffusing religion too much 
provided it is brought to a focus in consciousness at 
the right time and in the right way. There lies before 
me a letter from one of the leaders at a summer camp 
for boys where, the letter says, not less than two score 
boys reached the point of personal commitment to Christ. 



CHAPTER XIX 

CHRISTIAN ACADEMIES AND COLLEGES 

181. Their Point The theoretical reason for 

of Vi©w« 

having Christian academies 
and colleges is simply the major premise of 
all religious education, namely, that true ed- 
ucation is the development of the whole man, 
who is essentially a religious being. Consid- 
ered a priori, then, the truly Christian acad- 
emy or college presents the normal type of 
institutions for secondary and higher educa- 
tion. Considered historically, also, institu- 
tions of this class, to which belong all the older 
universities, colleges, and secondary schools, 
have rendered extraordinary service to learn- 
ing, morals, and religion. But the recent 
growth of public high schools and universities, 
which do not commonly assume any distinctive 
Christian or religious mission, has brought to 
the front the whole question of the place and 
value of the earlier type of establishment. 
Not only so, but competition from state insti- 
tutions has undoubtedly tended to modify, 
consciously or unconsciously, the spirit and 
methods of church schools and colleges. This 



326 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

is not the place for discussing all the broad 
problems thus arising, yet our sketch of the 
institutions for moral and religious education 
would be incomplete without some considera- 
tion of the general situation of a youth who 
seeks general education of the secondary and 
higher orders. 

182. Some What constitutes the dis- 

tinguishing mark of a truly 
Christian academy or college will appear as 
we proceed. Whatever that mark is, it can- 
not properly be substituted for good teaching 
or for adequate equipment in any department 
of study. The parts of education are not like 
commodities which, having a common measure 
of value, can be substituted the one for the 
other without loss. As there is no substitute 
for the proper training of character, so also 
there is none for good teaching of algebra, 
or Latin, or physics. The expensiveness of 
laboratories and of trained teachers, and the 
apparent cheapness of piety, have led in not 
a few cases to what amounts to a fraud upon 
the young. This is not too severe a character- 
isation of an institution that seeks power 
over the young without first qualifying itself 
to exercise that power. The very first condi- 
tion of making any academy or college truly 



CHRISTIAN ACADEMIES AND COLLEGES 327 



Christian is to give it adequate equipment for 
doing everything that it professes to do. 

Again, the essential mark of a Christian 
academy or college is not partisan zeal of any 
kind, whether the zeal of the sectarian, or that 
of the conservative, or that of the radical. 
True education must be as broad as human 
nature, and it contains a radical defect when 
it does not tend to overcome the limited views 
of the very churches that patronise it. The 
law of saving life by losing it applies to 
churches as well as to individuals. The 
church that is most certain that it has 
the truth should be foremost in granting to 
education the liberty that is its life's breath, 
while dogmatism in education should be 
looked upon as a sign of timidity rather 
than of faith. True conservatism lies in feed- 
ing the whole man, and in freeing him wholly, 
just as the general principles of education de- 
mand. If a church institution that is con- 
ducted in this spirit tends to modify the 
church life itself, tends to lead the church and 
not merely to follow, let that church rejoice, 
for it is attaining the results that are to be 
expected from education. 

That this is not the universal view of the 
relation of a church to its educational institu- 
tions is certain. They are sometimes expected 



328 EDUCATION IX RELIGION AND MORALS 

merely to hand down unchanged the tradi- 
tions that they receive. They are required to 
furnish weapons against thought-tendencies 
of the time that are condemned before they 
are heard. They are commonly a source of 
anxiety as though education as such were half 
distrusted.* This is surely a weakness. It is 
to give and to withhold, to say yes and no at 
the same time. It involves lack of the faith 
in education through which alone its proper 
ends can be realised. 

183. What Makes What, then, is the posi- 

an Institution ,. i r> /-n • , • 

Christian? tive mark 01 a Christian in- 

stitution of learning ? That 
it really educates, that is, develops, its pupils 
in Christian living. The mark is vital rather 
than formal. It is not primarily the inclusion 
of any particular study in the curriculum, or 
the maintenance of any particular form of 
worhip, or of any type of discipline. Here, 
as everywhere in education, the pupil himself 
and what he is becoming are the central fact 
and the decisive consideration. Experience 
shows that an institution that upholds reli- 

1 It is interesting to study the prayers that are pub- 
licly offered for colleges and college students by per- 
sons not connected with colleges. My own observation 
leads me to believe that such prayers are commonly 
based upon a false antithesis between study and spirit- 
uality which often amounts to a belief that intellectual 
development is per se dangerous to religious life. 



CHRISTIAN ACADEMIES AND COLLEGES 329 

gion in its teaching, its worship, and its dis- 
cipline, may yet thwart the aspirations of its 
pupils for religious insight, become a nursery 
of deceit and hypocrisy, or permit its pupils 
to sink into spiritual sleepiness and inactivity. 
In view of the fundamental place of commun- 
ity life in religious education, we may now 
advance another step by saying that a Chris- 
tian academy or college is one that maintains 
Christian community life. In this respect it is 
like the Christian family. This community 
life will include the intercourse of students 
with one another and with their instructors. 
It will include social affairs, athletics, and the 
other forms of student life as well as worship, 
and the instructional element will come in as 
an integral part of such a whole. 

184. The Christian The special problem of 
the academy grows out of 
the period of life that it touches, namely, 
middle adolescence, with a fringe of early and 
of later adolescence. At this period the prob- 
lem of discipline is peculiarly pressing. Im- 
pulses are abundant, activity is great, the 
sense of independence grows acute, the feel- 
ings are tumultuous. The attempt to govern 
a body of such students by formal rules, espi- 
onage, and artificial penalties fails because the 



330 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

discipline is external to the spontaneous mo- 
tives and impulses of the pupils. It fails 
because it separates teacher from pupil, and 
so disrupts the community life. It ought to 
fail because it contradicts the Christian prin- 
ciple of the sharing of life. On the other 
hand, discipline that grows out of the real 
sharing of life between teachers and pupils 
not only secures better order, but also de- 
velops regard for others, fidelity to social in- 
terests, and the other virtues that constitute 
the human side of the kingdom of God. Where 
the mechanical system of discipline prevails 
students feel that instruction in religion is 
formal and unreal. But where the vital or 
life-sharing plan is in operation students 
much more easily find a vital meaning in Bible 
study, worship, and all else that concerns 
religion.^ 

185. Transforma- The American college 

tion of the . . , , 

Religious College. Originated, as everyone 
knows, as an institution of 
religion, and largely for the purpose of pre- 
paring men for the Christian ministry. But 
great and momentous changes have taken 
place in the curriculum, the teaching force, 
the students, and the spirit and aim. The stu- 

^ As to relisioiis instruction appropriate to this age, 
Bee Chapter XV, and Chapter XVII, § 165 and 166. 



CHRISTIAN ACADEMIES AND COLLEGES 331 

dents have grown heterogeneous; they are no 
longer a chosen religious set. The teaching 
force has changed in the same direction, be- 
cause more and more stress is placed upon 
specialised attainments, and less upon denom- 
inational or even religious standing. Com- 
paratively few professors are now chosen 
from the ministerial rank. Meantime the 
range of instruction has been narrowed with 
respect to certain religious topics, the theo- 
logical seminaries having taken over most of 
the Hebrew, New Testament Greek, and doc- 
trinal studies, while the enrichment of the 
curriculum in many directions has reduced the 
relative prominence of all studies in religion. 
Again, instruction has been almost completely 
freed from dogmatic limitations. The pro- 
fessor of history or of geology is scarcely con- 
scious of a need of conforming his teaching 
to a standard that exists outside the facts of 
the subject itself. Another notable change 
is in the amount of student initiative. Not 
only have studies become largely elective, 
but religious activities have also come to be 
managed chiefly by the students themselves. 
Finally, the college is coming closer to so- 
called secular occupations. It is as close to 
law and medicine, and perhaps to commerce, 
as it is to the ministry. 



232 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

The denominational college appears, in fact, 
to be losing the distinctive marks which in 
other days set it off from all else. It seems, 
indeed, to be losing its consciousness of having 
a specific religious function; it seems to be 
thinking of itself chiefly as an institution for 
education in the so-called general sense. So 
true is this that friends of religious education 
have felt it incumbent upon them to start an 
agitation for the teaching of the Bible in 
Christian colleges ! 
186. Its Official This does not signify 

Responsibility. ^, ^, „ ,. . 

that the state oi religion is 
declining m these colleges. It did decline in 
the eighteenth century until it reached a low- 
point, but the nineteenth century saw a gen- 
eral upward movement. College sentiment 
and standards of living improved, and the 
proportion of church members among students 
greatly increased. But this revival has had, 
in general, only a loose relation to distinctly 
educational aims. It has been added to col- 
lege life, but it has not become an integral 
part of college education. Neither in the of- 
ficial college consciousness nor in the unofficial 
consciousness of students has education In re- 
ligion received any such recognition. It is 
true that some subjects that bear directly 



CHRISTIAN ACADEMIES AND COLLEGES 333 

upon religion are included in the curriculum, 
that daily worship is maintained, and that 
Christian associations are encouraged; it is 
true that the denominational college sincerely 
intends, in its official capacity, to be religious ; 
it strives to preserve religion, to defend it, to 
guard the childhood faith of students, to win 
the unconverted. But this is not the same as 
education in religion. It does not occupy the 
standpoint of religious development in any 
such way as the college occupies the stand- 
point of intellectual development. In a word, 
the religious college has not, as a general rule, 
recognised the principle of the unity of ed- 
ucation. If it had done so we should find 
larger provision for the religious side of stu- 
dent development. How many boards of 
trustees spend as much money for this pur- 
pose as for instruction in any single depart- 
ment ? How many faculties or administrative 
officers study this problem as they study en- 
trance requirements or the requirements for 
graduation ? We may frankly admit that the 
problem here presented involves extraordi- 
nary practical difficulties. It is not solved 
by adding a new department of instruction, 
for practical religion is not a specialty like 
bacteriology or comparative philology. Grow- 



S34 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

ing knowledge of religion is good, but there is 
demanded also some means whereby the spirit 
of religious growth shall be infused into the 
whole community life of the college. 

187. The Idea of The primary aim of the 

Development. ... ,, 

religious college m respect 

to its students considered merely as individ- 
uals is, then, their personal religious develop- 
ment. The use of religion is not merely to 
disinfect college life. The college is not to 
provide cold storage for preserving the reli- 
giousness that the student brings with him. 
It is not to build a dike to protect him 
from the ocean tides of modern thought, even 
though they bring disturbing conceptions of 
the world and of life. No static conception 
of religion will now suffice; the student must 
go forward, becoming something that he is 
not already, or he fails of religious education. 
Certainly the college should help him to lead 
a true life in the midst of new temptations 
and duties ; it should lead him to cherish more 
tenderly than ever the religion that he re- 
ceived from his parents; it should also pro- 
vide him with reasonable defences against 
untruth ; but in and through and underneath 
all this as the essence and moving force of it 



CHRISTIAN ACADEMIES AND COLLEGES 335 

all is to be the fact of a growing life. A vig- 
orously growing life has inherent capacity for 
expelling noxious germs, for assimilating 
food, and for eliminating waste. What is 
needed, then, is the aggressive, not the de- 
fensive, attitude, and the working of the ag- 
gressive spirit into the entire round of college 
relationships. 

Such growth will include the coordination 
of religious ideas with the other ideas with 
which the student is now occupied. In spirit, 
method, point of view, and content, religious 
training should not be separated from train- 
ing in history, literature, and the sciences. To 
put a youth into libraries and laboratories for 
five or six days in the week and then into a 
childish Bible class on Sunday is not likely 
to promote his religious development. To 
teach him manliness and the more rugged vir- 
tues on the athletic field, and then picture 
Christianity in the form of feminine saintli- 
ness is to lessen his respect for his religion. 
Somehow, the college must discover to the stu- 
dent the inner harmony and unity of the 
class-room, the laboratory, the athletic field, 
the Bible class, the service of worship, and 
one 's private devotions. The chances are that 
heretofore his instruction has been the ex- 



336 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

elusive kind that sets religion apart from 
other vital interests. Now he must succeed 
in finding that religion is inclusive of all his 
real interests, else he will become indifferent 
to it or permit it to become a mere formality. 

The idea of development also includes the 
discovery of a spring of lasting inspiration. 
One may unify the scientific and the religious 
points of view, and adopt the inclusive view 
of religion, without catching the fire of a 
lasting religious zeal. The colleges are send- 
ing out too many men who are sympathetic 
spectators of religion rather than workers 
therein. It is possible to find divine meaning 
everywhere in the world without finding a 
personal divine call anywhere. A college ex- 
perience that does not culminate in a pro- 
found and joyous sense of having a divine 
mission in life and a divine inspiration for 
fulfilling that mission is largely a failure. 
There is in the colleges a large amount of neb- 
ulous sentiment about progress, enlighten- 
ment, humanity, which, though it has a sound 
basis in truth, lacks dynamic quality. These 
nebulous ideas must be brought to definition, 
and the motive force that properly belongs 
with them must be communicated. 



CHRISTIAN ACADEMIES AND COLLEGES 337 

188. Religious But the individual is 

Zaymen^ °^ ^ot a mere individual. 

Christianity is a religion 
of social relationships, and for these the 
college should specifically prepare its stu- 
dents. Just as the student who expects to 
be a physician is advised to elect in col- 
lege such subjects as biology, bacteriology 
and chemistry; just as one who intends 
to become an engineer is directed to 
mathematics and physics, so every student 
should in some way receive such training 
as will help him to understand and to 
practice the religious principles involved 
in the family life, church life, community, 
national, and world life. College studies are 
coming into closer relationship to occupa- 
tion, yet the most constant and important 
occupation of practically all men— the main- 
tenance of family life— is scarcely ever taken 
into consideration in the colleges. The 
churches are crying for Sunday-school teach- 
ers and for leaders in many kinds of activity, 
yet the colleges, even those founded and 
supported by these very churches, are 
doing scarcely anything that is specifically 
directed toward supplying this need. The 
case is slightly better with respect to prepara- 
tion for the duties of citizenship, yet how 



338 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

little attention is given to the religious and 
Christian aspect of such duties. Jesus came 
preaching a kingdom, a state of society, and 
that preaching has a direct bearing upon our 
duties as members of society and of the state. 
One of the curses of our social, economic, and 
political condition is that Christians do not 
realise the essentially social and even political 
character of Christian living. They think 
that Christianity is to bind up the wounds 
of those who are injured by the machinery 
of civilisation, but they have not grasped the 
idea that Christianity contains and is the or- 
ganising principle of civilisation itself. Now, 
a Christian college has no more distinctive 
mission than to develop in its students a sense 
of having a definite constructive Christian 
mission to perform in family, in church, in 
society, and in the state. As the old denom- 
inational college existed largely to train men 
for the Christian ministry, so the newer type 
finds its greatest opportunity in the training 
of laymen for the true Christian ministry of 
laymen. 

189. Instruction, These, together with the 

Worship, Work. ^-^^^^g ^f students who 

are not committed to Christ, are the essen- 
tially religious aims of the Christian college. 



CHRISTIAN ACADEMIES AND COLLEGES 339 

The means thereto include (a) Instruction, 
which should give the student a broad view 
of the place of religion in human history, its 
nature as a human experience, the historic 
position of the Christian religion, and the 
content of the Christian view of life ; ( & ) 
Worship, which should be at once so dignified 
yet joyous, so simple yet beautiful, so solemn 
yet so near the problems of students, as to 
yield rich satisfaction and exercise for the 
life of sentiment without divorcing it from 
the practical life; and (c) Religious and phil- 
anthropic work, which serves to express the 
student's religious aspiration and to prepare 
him for further activities in later life.^ 

Each of these three suggests problems that 
cannot here be so much as touched upon. It 
is essential to remark, however, that progress 
in respect to religion in the college is not to 
be made by seeking to restore the conditions 
that existed in the colleges of an earlier gen- 
eration. Liberty of election must be accepted 
as an established principle, and the decrease 
rather than the increase of required studies 
as an inevitable tendency. Required studies 
in the Bible, or in other topics recognised as 

* To this end teaching Sunday-school classes, doing 
settlement or charity-organisation work, etc., seem to 
be desirable. Some college officers, however, doubt the 
feasibility of much work of this sort for college students. 



340 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

having to do with religion, are appropriate 
enough in the secondary school, but in the 
college the mere fact that they are required 
works to their prejudice. They tend to be 
looked upon as formal impositions rather than 
as privileges. The same is true as to the 
tendency of required services of worship. 
The problem of the compulsory chapel service 
is not to be settled by following any abstract 
notions of what ought to be, but by consider- 
ing the actual effect upon the student mind 
of compulsory as opposed to voluntary 
methods. Institutions that pursue the com- 
pulsory plan should at least enrich their serv- 
ices beyond the relatively bare and formal ex- 
ercises that are too common. Students may 
be compelled to come, but they cannot be com- 
pelled to respect such exercises. But when 
the worship is sufficiently enriched to com- 
mand respect, then, perhaps, the need of com- 
pulsion will grow small. Not immediately, 
perhaps, but in the end, we shall all see that 
when religion is presented in worship and in 
instruction in its own beauty and majesty 
it will accomplish without formal rules the 
very thing that our formal rules are now 
accomplishing so imperfectly. 



CHRISTIAN ACADEMIES AND COLLEGES 341 



190. The Chris- The best provision yet 

tian Association -, p ■,- • ^ 

Movement. made for religious work on 

the part of students is that 
of the student Christian associations. These 
associations are coming to stand for sym- 
metrical development, and so we behold the 
same men leading prayer-meetings and fight- 
ing foot-ball battles. There is here also a 
nucleus for religious fellowship, and for a sort 
of laboratory work in religion. In the name 
of Christ, and with no motive beyond that of 
helpfulness, new students are welcomed and 
assisted through the bewilderments that 
attend their new and strange life ; a student 
labor bureau is conducted; social entertain- 
ments are held; private devotion is stim- 
ulated; Bible study is carried on; religious 
meetings are held, and personal work is done 
looking toward the conversion of students who 
are not Christians. In addition, the volunteer 
movement for foreign missions has brought 
religion as a concrete fact and a world force 
close to the student consciousness in many 
colleges. Several colleges or universities are 
supporting a missionary on the field. 

All this is wholesome, but experience shows 
that the association movement sometimes has 
unwholesome elements. Not seldom a one- 



342 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

sided, even morbid spirituality has been cul- 
tivated. Often the members of the association 
form a religious set or clique, or are believed 
to do so, and thus the large and human aspects 
of Christianity are lost sight of. Bible study, 
in order to be devotional, has often been un- 
intelligent, or at least half intelligent.^ Fur- 
ther, the conditions of membership now im- 
posed by the Young Men 's Christian Associa- 
tions and the Young Women 's Christian Asso- 
ciations include a dogmatic test that excludes 
many sincere disciples of Christ. The test is 
more dogmatic than that imposed by some of 
the evangelical churches. Finally, the asso- 
ciation movement in the colleges has tended 
toward a kind of centralisation that tends to 
give undue influence to international secre- 
taries who reside at a distance and are not 
members of the college community. 
191. The College This brings us to what is 

as a Christian i, 1,1 ^.i j. ^ • 

Community. probably the central issue 

of all, namely, the necessity, 
for the sake of religious education, of estab- 
lishing distinctively Christian community 
life. The college spirit and the Christian 
spirit should fuse and be one. The college 
must be a religious community, not a com- 

1 See Chapter XXII, § 216. 



CHRISTIAN ACADEMIES AND COLLEGES 343 

munity of some other sort with a religious 
appendage; and the religious spirit must be 
self-perpetuating and self-governing, not 
guided from without the college itself. No 
matter what is taught in the lecture room, no 
matter what religious services are held, no 
matter what organisations are maintained, 
unless religion does thus become infused into 
the spirit of the place, a normal development 
of the students is not to be expected. The 
ideal would be an utterly pervasive Christian 
sentiment in the class-room, on the athletic 
field, in social affairs, in all student enter- 
prises, so that the college should be a minia- 
ture kingdom of God. Any practicable move- 
ment in this direction will demand that the 
older and more experienced members of the 
community, the members of the faculty, 
mingle their life freely with the life of the 
students. The human being within the official 
must reveal himself. He must reveal himself 
as sincerely interested in all that is human, 
and as finding the inner reality of every 
human interest in the human religion of 
Christ. Such teachers can lead the students 
to abandon cant phrases and stock expressions 
in their prayer-meetings, and to come at the 
religious aspects of college life in as sincere, 



344 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

unconstrained, matter-of-fact a way as they 
now employ with respect to athletics or other 
student enterprises. Such leadership can re- 
move the prejudice that religion suffers from 
by being regarded as a restraint upon the 
buoyant activities and enterprises of youth. 
Religion is, and it can be shown to be, the 
central principle of all that is worth while in 
college life. Thus at last we discover that 
religious education in the college proceeds on 
the very same principle, by the very same 
method as in the family. Everywhere the 
central need is the incarnation of the spirit of 
Christ in the group of which one is a member. 

192. Religion in There is no formal ob- 

University. stacle to realising nearly all 

the elements of religious 
education in a state university. Here the 
Christian association is as free as elsewhere; 
here the members of the faculty are at liberty 
to put as much of themselves as they will into 
the community life; here, as a general rule, 
there is liberty to teach the philosophical 
truths and the historical facts of religion in 
general and of Christianity in particular. In 
various state universities, too, regular services 
of worship are officially held. Hence it has 
come about that some of these universi- 



CHRISTIAN ACADEMIES AND COLLEGES 345 

ties are scarcely distinguishable in respect to 
their treatment of religion from denomina- 
tional institutions. Yet, since the religious 
aim is here not a distinctive one, there is 
always opportunity for indifferent or hostile 
persons to become members of the governing 
board or of the faculty, and this has now and 
then actually happened. In general, too, the 
ecclesiastical features of Christian history and 
living cannot receive adequate treatment. It 
is therefore incumbent upon the Christian 
churches to surround these institutions with 
such church services, young people's meet- 
ings, guilds, lectures, and pastoral oversight 
as are especially adapted to students. At two 
of the state universities, at least/ the Dis- 
ciples have established independent chairs of 
Bible study which seem to be meeting with 
some success. 

193. Religious We hear a great deal 

Preparation for ■■ . ,i • -j^ ^ ^ 

Entering College, about the spiritual dangers 
of college life, but scarcely 
anyone stops to ask whether the moral 
downfalls, the scepticism, the religious in- 
difference that now and then occur are not 
commonly due to lack of religious prepara- 
tion for entering college. We seem to have 
assumed that readiness for college consists 

> Michigaa and Kansas. 



346 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

simply in ability to pass the entrance ex- 
aminations. Yet it is possible to enter 
college a young man in body, in intelligence, 
in intellectual power, but a mere boy in 
moral and spiritual insight and in the ap- 
plication of Christian principle to life. Be- 
fore a student enters college, where he is to 
be his own master, he should have some train- 
ing in the uses of liberty. Before he encoun- 
ters the full force of the scientific method as 
applied to religion, he should have learned 
to come at religious matters frankly, nat- 
urally, for himself, without fear of trans- 
gressing authority. Before he reaches the 
point where the hardest questions are asked, 
he should be made to understand that the 
.questioning attitude can coexist with religious 
activity and with loyalty to Christ. Need- 
less to add, perhaps, is the wisdom of causing 
him to form the habit of self-sacrificing serv- 
ice for others before he leaves home to live 
among strangers. 

On the other hand, the college cannot prop- 
erly ignore the spiritual unripeness of the 
incoming freshman. In the nature of the case 
he will have some difficulty in securing the 
points of view of his professors. He must 
grow to them. What is already assimilated by 



CHRISTIAN ACADEMIES AND COLLEGES 347 

a senior may daze and discourage him. It is 
easy to create misunderstandings, to awaken 
a half thought where the professor has a 
whole one, to suggest a fallacious inference 
by forgetting that the professor's experience 
has supplied a premise that the freshman 
lacks. Hence, while the preparatory school 
should reach upward toward the college, the 
college should reach downward toward the 
secondary school. This will involve in some 
cases special instruction for new students and 
in all cases regard on the part of the teacher 
for the mental ripeness or unripeness of his 
individual pupils. 



CHAPTER XX 

STATE SCHOOLS 

194. Moral That state schools should 

Training in State , i -j^- j 

Schools. make good citizens, and 

that good citizenship de- 
pends upon good character, all are agreed.^ 
The means employed for this purpose in well 
equipped American schools are these: (1) The 
ordinary studies which, when well taught, de- 
velop self-control, accuracy, application, and 
truthfulness. ( 2 ) Manual training, which de- 
velops a sense of law, order and neatness, 
thoroughness, patience, and faithfulness to a 
standard, pattern, or ideal. (3) Certain 
studies, such as noble literature, biography, 
and history, which directly develop ideals of 
life. (4) The school organisation, discipline, 
and sports, which help to form social virtues. 
The ideal school is a miniature society in 
which each member learns by practice the 
lesson of mutual dependence and the spirit 
of co-operation and helpfulness. (5) The 
personality of the teacher, and incidental in- 
struction as to conduct and ideals. Less com- 

» See Chapter 1. 



STATE SCHOOLS 349 

monly text-books in morals are used, but 
among teachers there is a general sentiment 
against them. It is held that virtue must be 
learned by practice, and that to teach about 
it in the abstract tends to give an impression 
that virtue itself is abstract. It does not 
clearly appear, however, why the act and the 
idea, the practice and the formulated prin- 
ciple, might not go together. There is no evi- 
dence that a consciously recognised and for- 
mulated principle is less needful in our moral 
life than in our use of language or of numbers. 
A goodly portion of American teachers is 
imbued with the idea that the school is pri- 
marily and strictly an ethical institution, a 
training place for character. Such teachers 
and schools are a true bulwark of our na- 
tional welfare. Yet some teachers, and some 
school boards, have not yet risen to this idea 
of what a school is for. Regarding it as an 
institution for instruction in certain subjects, 
they look upon its work as done when the pre- 
scribed amount of knowledge or of power has 
been acquired by the pupils. Sometimes, too, 
— especially in the cities — the emphasis is 
placed upon getting a living rather than upon 
attaining a life that is worth living.^ On the 

1 There is no necessary opposition between the ethical 
and the vocational views of public education. For ethl- 



350 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

whole, however, the ethical idea seems to be 
gaining rather than losing influence in our 
schools. 

195. state Schools As to the relation of state 

and Religion. i i - t • .i. 

The Present schools to religion, there IS 

Confusion. confusion in both theory 

and practice. The confu- 
sion is due to, or expressed in, the fol- 
lowing circumstances: (1) We are in the 
midst of a contest between the religious 
and the non-religious or secularist view 
of life's meaning and ideals. (2) The 
persons who accept the religious view of life 
are divided into parties which refuse or neg- 
lect to co-operate with one another in advanc- 
ing ideals that are common to them all. The 
danger that our state schools shall become 
nurseries of secularism arises chiefly out of 
this fact. (3) The attempt to apply the prin- 
ciple of separating the church from the state 
has produced varying laws and court de- 
cisions in the different states and municipali- 
ties, and the principle itself is in a confused 
condition, even in the minds of educators. 

cal Ideals are to be realized in and through the every- 
day worlc and relations of men. Our danger is not that 
the public school shall be brought too close to our in- 
dustrial life, but that it shall not recognize the ethical 
aspects of that and of all life. The school should not 
accept the existing standards of industrial life, but try 
to raise them. 



STATE SCHOOLS 351 

(4) There is confusion, or lack of co-ordina- 
tion, in respect to the general conception of 
the nature and means of education. Even in 
high places, education is still identified with 
instruction, and education in religion with the 
teaching of dogma, while the unity of edu- 
cation remains as yet a rather vague ideal, 
with little power practically to correlate the 
functions of the family, the school, and the 
church. 

196, The Central In all this confusion, 

however, the central issue 
concerns the kind of life that we wish the 
children to grow into. The contradiction 
between the religious and the secularist view 
of life is fundamental and irreconcilable. In 
our schools, the function of which is to pre- 
pare children to live, the aim of which is 
identical with the aim of life, we must simply 
choose between the two views. It is, indeed, 
possible, to divide the labor of teaching be- 
tween the family, the church, and the state, 
and to assign to each some functions that are 
not assumed by the others, but the child is 
one and indivisible. The whole of him is 
present in the state school. There, as well as 
in the church, he is forming his notion and 



352 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 



his attitude with respect to the deepest prob- 
lems of life and destiny. 

This happens, too, in spite of the silence of 
teachers regarding such matters. Silence re- 
garding an issue is, in fact, often the surest 
way of throwing influence in favor of a nega- 
tive solution of it. This is doubly true of 
schools that have the direction of children five 
or six hours a day for five days in the week. 
Here, conscious of being educated for life, the 
child judges that that which is actually 
brought to his attention includes what is of 
most importance. Hence, to receive no reli- 
gious impression at all is exactly equivalent 
to receiving an impression that religion is 
unimportant.^ 

Nor is this the end of the matter. For, 
whether they will or no, the personal attitude 
of teachers toward religion makes an impres- 
sion. Religion or irreligion is present in the 
schools just as surely as teachers are present. 
The notion that the state school can be 
strictly, neutral with respect to the great prob- 
lem of life and destiny is simply illusory; it 
has no basis in psychology or in the principles 
of education. It is incumbent upon us, there- 

1 See E. A. Pace : Address on "The Influence of Re- 
li'gious Education on the Motives of Conduct," In Pro- 
ceedings of the National Educational Association, 1903, 
page 350. 



STATE SCHOOLS 333 



fore, to talce one side or the other, either the 
religious or the secularist, and then— not by 
any insincerity or indirection, but frankly — 
let our actual principle be incorporated into 
the state school. 

197. The Minimal This does not necessarily 

Demand of . , . . . , 

Religion. imply instruction in dogma. 

Education is not identical 
with formal instruction. Education is a com- 
prehensive thing; it touches the whole man, 
while instruction is primarily addressed to 
the intellect. In every other branch of edu- 
cation this distinction is easily made, but the 
instant we begin to speak of religious 
education, the evil genius of our scholastic 
past makes us forget everything but the idea 
of the formal teaching of dogma. Nearly 
every objection to religious education in the 
public schools rests upon this confusion. The 
very same teachers who teach morals with- 
out the use of a text-book or of any formal 
lessons assume that religion in the public 
schools means a text-book and formal instruc- 
tion ! ^ As well might we assume that, be- 

> The identification of education with instruction is 
fundamental to the argument of Commissioner Harris 
against committing to the public schools any religious 
function. He appears unable to conceive of any way of 
training In religion except dogmatic instruction and 
ceremonial worship. He also exaggerates to the point of 
distortion the contrast between the scientific and the 



S54 E^JUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

cause the Sunday school teaches its pupils to 
read the Bible, therefore it teaches them to 
read. It is just as possible for the public 
school to build character upon the religious 
instruction that the child receives at the 
church as for the Sunday school to utilise the 
instruction in reading that the child receives 
in the public school. Without teaching 
dogmas that are in dispute among the 
churches, even without giving any formal 
statement of the broad truths upon which our 
people as a whole is agreed, the school can 
take a stand on the issue between the religious 
and the irreligious life. In the regulation of 
conduct; in the study of literature, biogra- 
phy, history, and nature ; by incidental ref- 
erence here and there, especially as all these 
are reinforced by the teacher's own tone and 
manner of life, it is easy to make the child 
realise that the school respects that which his 
parents and his church hold most dear.^ 

religious attitudes of mind. It is difficult, in fact, to 
resist tiie conviction that his argument is based upon a 
square contradiction of the unity of the child and the 
unity of education. — W. T. Harris : Address on "The 
Separation of the Church from the Tax-Supported 
School" (Proceedings of the National Educational Asso- 
ciation, 1903), page 351; also reprinted in the Educa- 
tional Review, October, 1903. A different view of the 
relation of the scientific to the religious spirit will be 
found In George A. Coe : The Religion of a Mature 
Mind (Chicago, 1902), Chapter II. 

1 The only equipment that is necessary is teachers who 
really hold the religious view of life and strive to put 



STATE SCnOOLS 355 

Without at least thtis much religion in the 
school, we cultivate a divided self in the 
pupil. He lives in several different worlds 
between which he experiences no unity. We 
have heard not a little recently about the evil 
of isolating the school from life. This evil is 
at its maximum when the school fails to con- 
nect its own work with that which the family, 
the church, and our civilisation in general 
hold of most worth. The primary necessity, 
then, is that the school should take religion 
for granted. This is being done already in 
schools from which the laws exclude all reli- 
gious exercises, and even the reading of the 
Bible. More than this is possible in some 
places already, and we may hope that the 
number of such places will increase, but this 
is the minimal demand that is consistent with 
the unity of education. 

198. Does this Does this minimal de- 

Involve Union of n • i - j. u 

Church and mand Violate our estab- 

State? lished principle respecting 

the relation of ecclesiastical 

to civil authority? That principle forbids all 

it Into practice. Every department and every teacher 
stiould sound the same note. The chief difficulty is in 
the selection of teachers. Let there be no discrimination 
against Catholic, Protestant, or Jew, but rigid discrim- 
ination again.st any candidate who is not likely to be a 
positive spiritual influence. 



356 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

alliances with ecclesiastical bodies, all support 
^ of sectarian religion. But it does not require 
the complete separation of the state from all 
religion. To give this interpretation would be 
both historically and logically incorrect. It 
would be logically incorrect because it would 
assume that all the manifestations of religion 
are necessarily manifestations of sectarian- 
ism. It would assume that the man is always 
lost in the sectary, that the universal divine 
life has lost its unity in the division of sects. 
As Bishop Spalding remarks, there is in each 
of us a fountain of religious impulses, the 
welling of whose waters makes us human. "If 
we are forbidden," he says, "to turn the 
current into this or that channel, we are not 
forbidden to recognise the universal truth 
that man lives by faith, hope, and love, by 
imagination and desire, and that it is pre- 
cisely for this reason that he is educable. ' ' ^ 
No sect can possibly monopolise the waters of 
this fountain. They flow through all the 
churches, but also round about them all. 
Upon this, our common humanity, which is 
religious ; upon the ideals of our people as a 
whole, w^hich are surely religious, the state 
has the right and the duty to build a school 

1 J. L. Spalding : Means and Ends of Education, 3d 
edition (Chicago, 1901), page 142. 



STATE SCHOOLS 357 

that shall not ignore any essential human 
quality or any essential feature of the ideals 
of our people.^ 

199. The Next What, then, is the next 

Move: Not Fault- .- i . . t, ^ i 

Finding. practical step to be taken 

in order that our state 
schools may become in truth a part of a 
unified educational system that embraces also 
the family and the church? Some persons 
apparently believe that the next step is de- 
nunciation or harsh criticism of the schools. 
Practically all the faults of our people are 
laid at the door of the public school. The 
reasoning is this: Here is our system of 
education, and modern life with all its faults 
is its product. Yet the public school is only 
one part of our three-fold educational system, 
and not the most important part for the train- 
ing of character. The character of our peo- 
ple, moreover, is affected by economic, social, 
and political conditions for which the public 

' This distinction is clearly made In the celebrated 
Edgerton case, in which the Wisconsin Supreme Court 
ruled that the reading of the Bible in a public school con- 
stitutes sectarian instruction. The court held specifl- 
cally that some parts of the Bible, which are not sec- 
tarian, may be used for the purpose of moral training, 
and tiiat the schools may even give instruction in re- 
ligious beliefs that are held in common by all religious 
sects, as, "the existence of a Supreme Being, of infinite 
wisdom, power, and goodness, and that it is the highest 
duty of all men to adore, obey, and love him." See Re- 
port of the Commissioner of Education, 1888-1889, 
Volume I, pages 620-631. 



358 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

school cannot by any possibility be held 
responsible. It is undoubtedly true that we 
are facing an emergency with respect to the 
training of character, but the causes of this 
emergency are complex, and the burden of 
the coming reform must rest at least as much 
upon the churches and the homes as upon the 
public school. The burden rests very largely 
upon the very ecclesiastical forces whose jeal- 
ousy of one another has tended to make of the 
public school the very thing that it is criti- 
cised for being. This denunciation is unjust, 
too, because it ignores the great work that the 
schools are already doing in the training of 
character. It is also inexpedient, for it tends 
to alienate from the reform movement a vast 
body of earnest, high-minded teachers whose 
co-operation is essential to the success of the 
movement. 
200. Not Restoring Other agitators believe 

the Bible to the ,i ^ ,, - i, i^ 

Schools. that the next move should 

be to reinstate the reading 
of the Bible in the schools from which it has 
been excluded. In some states this would 
necessitate an amendment to the state consti- 
tution, or else a reversal of supreme-court 
decisions. In other states its wisdom as a 



STATE SCHOOLS 359 

first step may be doubted. For it is not clear 
that the reading of certain words has much 
tendency to build up character in the absence 
of concrete conditions that illustrate and ex- 
press their meaning. Further, in some places 
the effort to reinstate Bible reading would 
stir to renewed activity the very jealousies 
and misunderstandings that lie at the basis of 
our trouble, and so would prevent recognition 
of even the minimal demand that has been 
outlined. While it is true that the Bible fur- 
nishes the very best literary material for the 
training of character, our first step toward 
the improvement of present conditions is not 
so much to choose between tools and methods 
as to create a spirit that will demand the 
best tools and methods. We must make the 
people aware that the schools really have a 
moral and spiritual aim to realise. We must 
also call to the consciousness of the people the 
real spiritual unity that exists among us in 
spite of manifold differences. In a word, the 
primary lack that is to be supplied is not 
means of religious education, but a national 
religious purpose in education. WTien such a 
purpose ripens it will probably reinstate the 
Bible where it is now excluded. 



360 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

201. Not Formal The same remarks apply 
Religion. ^o the proposal to formu- 
late a list of the religious 

truths upon which we, as a people, are agreed, 
such as the existence and goodness of God, his 
control of nature and history, our duty to love 
and obey him, and to love our neighbor as 
ourself. Such a plan as this implies might 
work in some places.^ But in other places 
any attempt to introduce it would be of 
doubtful value at this stage. The community 
must first be quickened before such a plan 
can secure general adoption. Further, it is 
not altogether clear that any such plan would 
be necessary if the various churches were do- 
ing their proper share of the educational 
work. It is a fair question whether the func- 
tion of the state school with respect to religion 
will not always be limited to the simple and 
practical application of teachings, the formal 
part of which the children obtain elsewhere. 

202. But Better What, then, should be the 

Education in , , ^ . 

Home and next move toward improv- 

es urch; ijjg lY^Q relation of the 

state schools to religion? 
Without hesitation it may be said that the 

1 See J. W. Carr : Address on "Religious and Moral 
Education through the Public Schools," in the Proceed- 
ings of the Religious Education Association, 1903, page 
138. 



STATE SCHOOLS 361 

next move should be to induce the family and 
the church consciously to assume their proper 
share of the responsibility for the character of 
the rising generation. Let us remove the 
beam that is in our own eyes. If I let weeds 
go to seed in my dooryard, they spread to my 
neighbor's dooryard; but if I make my door- 
yard beautiful with tiowers, I make it easier 
for my neighbor to beautify his own premises. 
As soon as the family and the church are suf- 
ficiently aroused to begin to do their own 
duty, the public-school question will grow 
wondrously simple. Strong purpose is con- 
tagious, and it has a remarkable way of find- 
ing methods. Our trouble is that we have not 
yet reached the point of giving ourselves to 
this reform. We are giving, instead, advice 
and criticism to the public schools, and in 
various ways we are hoping that organisa- 
tions, methods, and schemes will do what only 
personal consecration can accomplish. We 
neglect the children in our homes; we do 
shilly-shally work in the Sunday school, and 
then shift to the state school the blame for the 
results! It is well, to be sure, to adopt at 
once every feasible means for improving the 
state school, but— depend upon it— any large 
and thorough improvement therein will wait 



362 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 



until, through striving to build, each over 
against his own house, the churches and the 
homes have developed a proper educational 
consciousness among the people. 
203. And Closer Then will come a sense of 

Acquaintance „ „ , . . , ^. , 

between all Three. lellowship m educational 

aims, and a desire for closer 
acquaintance between the home, the church, 
and the school. Any movement that will ac- 
complish what the National Congress of 
Mothers and similar organisations are aiming 
at, namely, close understanding and co-opera- 
tion between parents and teachers, will do 
more to tone up the public school than any 
kind of mechanical or legal reform. A 
teacher who feels the heart-beat of a parent 
who is in earnest with respect to the religious 
life of his child cannot be indifferent to the 
religious influence of the school upon that 
child. Our purposes are in confusion largely 
because we isolate ourselves from one an- 
other's deeper life. Mingle together public- 
school teachers, parents, Sunday-school 
teachers, pastors, Catholics, Protestants of all 
kinds, Jews, even secularists— bring them all 
close enough together — and there will emerge 
a sense of unity in moral and spiritual pur- 



STATE SCHOOLS 363 

pose that will be adequate to all our trouble- 
some problems. 

204. The Out of such Unity of 

Parochial School • -j^ j^i i i i 

Question. spirit there would surely 

spring in time a solution of 
the problem of the relation of the Catholic 
parish school to the state school. A solution 
of this problem must be found because of the 
tendency of a divided school system to divide 
our national consciousness. It must be found, 
also, for the simple reason that hundreds of 
thousands of our citizens feel themselves ag- 
grieved by what they regard as the injustice 
of being obliged to pay taxes for the support 
of schools to which, for reasons of religion 
and conscience, they cannot send their chil- 
dren. It is scarcely conceivable that these 
citizens bear the burden of supporting a 
second school system out of motives so 
peculiar or unreasonable that the state may 
properly ignore them. There is here a touch 
of the heroic, and it is not to be explained by 
any superficial impulse. The Catholic view 
has consistently maintained the central prin- 
ciple, or major premise, of all religious educa- 
tion, namely, that the whole child should be 
educated. With the Catholic minor premise, 
which concerns the means of securing such 



S64 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

complete education, we may differ, but on the 
major premise Catholics and Protestants 
ought to be so far agreed as to recognise 
each other as fellow workers in a common 
cause. Here Catholics and Protestants are 
really at one against the secularist view of 
education ; here they have a common interest 
in protecting the public schools from secular- 
ist encroachments. 

Our immediate need is to secure a neigh- 
borly and national religious consciousness 
with respect to the essential aims of education. 
When it is attained it will find means for 
making itself effective. It will certainly not 
surrender the principle of common schools for 
the whole people, for the association of differ- 
ent classes in the public school forms the most 
certain bond of unity in a democratic state. 
Nor will a national religious consciousness 
with respect to education tend to violate the 
principle of separation between church and 
state. Indeed, the Catholic Church thrives so 
much better where it is free from political 
entanglements that its American adherents 
are reaching agreement with the Protestants 
as to the proper relation between the eccle- 
siastical and the civil power.^ 

^ "In the ever-widening domain of tlie Britisli Empire, 
in the ever-growing territory of the American Republic, 



STATE SCHOOLS 



If we are to have common schools for the 
whole people, complete separation of church 
and state, and yet thorough religious educa- 
tion for Catholic and Protestant children 
alike, it follows that the religious function of 
the state schools should he permanently re- 
stricted to friendly recognition of the teach- 
ing function of the family and of the church, 
and sympathetic co-operation with them by 
assuming as true and good whatever is com- 
mon to the various religious communions. 
But this implies that these communions volun- 
tarily furnish, at their own expense, definite 
and systematic religious training for -their 
children and for all children who can be 
reached. 

democracy is triumphant ; and in all these vast regions, 
with the exception of the Anglican Establishment, which 
is an anomaly, confined to England, there is a separa- 
tion of church and state, a separation which those who 
are competent to judge recognise as permanent. There 
is everywhere freedom to write, to publish, to discuss, 
to organise ; and there is no subject of thought, no sphere 
of action, no interest which it is possible to fence about 
and shut in from the all-searching breath of liberty. 
This condition of things exists : every influence main- 
tains and strengthens it ; so far as we are able to see, 
it does not appear that any earthly power can change or 
destroy it. It is a state of things English-speaking 
Catholics accept without mental reservations, without 
misgivings, without regrets, which are always idle ; and 
the common rights which are ours in the midst of a 
general freedom have stirred in us an energy of tliought 
and action which have led to triumphs and conquests 
that have not been achieved by Catholics elsewhere in 
the wonderful century that is now closing."— Rt. Rev. 
J. L. Spalding : Education and the Future of Religion : 
A Sermon Preached in Rome, March 21, 1900 (The Ave 
Maria, Notre Dame, Indiana). 



3G6 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

As far as organisation is concerned, the ker- 
nel of the difficulty lies in the necessity of ad- 
justing public functions and private func- 
tions to each other so as to make a system of 
the whole. To appropriate public funds for 
education not under the specific direction of 
the state would aggravate rather than allevi- 
ate the present situation, besides involving an 
obvious encroachment upon the established re- 
lation of church and state. Again, for the 
state to pay for the use of a parish-school 
building certain hours in the day, leaving its 
owners free to employ it for the remainder of 
the day for religious instruction by a single 
sect to the exclusion of all others would con- 
stitute practical favoritism to a particular 
sect. It would take the pupils of the state 
into a situation in which, by official act, the 
opportunities of the different sects to influ- 
ence them are unequal. But the state school 
may properly adjust its hours so as to provide 
time for specific religious training by all the 
sects. The state might also permit the use of 
public-school rooms by the different religious 
bodies, either with or without compensation, 
for the purpose of religious education, pro- 
vided that the same opportunities are ex- 
tended to all. In any case, the only practica- 



STATE SCHOOLS 367 

ble solution of the problem is this : A public 
school for all children, having its setting, in 
one way or another, in a group of schools or 
their equivalent maintained by the churches 
for the purpose of specific religious education, 
the whole being inspired by a set of common 
ideals, a recognition of a common view of life^ 
but each church school being controlled by 
further ideals that are peculiar to the sect 
that supports it.^ 

The effect of such an arrangement would be 
threefold, and all for the good. (1) The en- 
tire body of children in attendance upon the 
state school would recognise religion as a real 
and serious interest, and religious training 
and instruction as included in education. 
(2) The present movement among Catholics for 
improvement in the methods of Catholic edu- 
cation would receive wholesome impetus. This 
movement, which is parallel to what is going 
on among Protestants, calls upon the church 
schools to avail themselves of the principles 

^ For various propositions put forth by Catholic writ- 
ers, see Archbishop Ireland's address on "State Schools 
and Parish Schools," in the Proceedings of the National 
Educational Association, 1890, page 119 : also the pam- 
phlet (price, five cents) entitled. "Catholic Citizens and 
Public Education" (Catholic Book Exchange, 120 West 
60th Street, New York). What the different states 
actually do with respect to parish schools is shown in 
the Report of the Commissioner of Education, 1888-89, 
Volume I, page 429. The relation of state universities 
to religion is touched upon in the present work, Chapter 
XIX. § 192. 



368 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

of modern education by making instruction 
less formal, less memoriter, more free and 
self-expressive, more appreciative of freedom 
of thought and modern learning.^ These ends 
would be well conserved by closer contact 
with the modern educational world, from 
which the parish school is now relatively iso- 
lated. (3) Protestants would be stimulated 
to throw off their shameful lethargy with re- 
spect to education in religion. They would 
learn from their Catholic fellow workers 
something of the persistent devotion to a cen- 
tral educational principle to which the parish 
school bears witness. Under the influence of 
public-school methods Protestant teaching 
would also secure definite organisation and 
method where they are now sorely needed. 

Would the element of competition that 
would be involved in bringing the educational 
work of different churches into this close con- 

1 "There is a large consensus of opinion on two im- 
portant facts — the difficulty, irksomeness, and generally 
unsatisfactory character of our catechetical systems, and 
the enormous losses from the ranks of those who have 
gone through that training No merely ex- 
trinsic causes would, I think, be able to neutralize so 
largely the efforts of Christian education unless there 
were some vital deficiency in the system itself." — Rt. 
Rev. James Bellord : Religious Education and its Fail- 
ures (The Ave Maria, Notre Dame, Indiana, 1901), page 
17. See, also, Rt. Rev. J. L. Spalding : Education and 
the Future of Religion (The Ave Maria, Notre Dame. 
Indiana) ; likewise L. Laberthonniere : The Ideal 
Teacher, or the Catholic Notion of Authority in Educa- 
tion (New York: The Cathedral Library Association, 
1902). 



STATE SCHOOLS 369 

tact tend to the disadvantage of any of the 
churches ? If it would, we may be reasonably 
hopeful that the spiritually fittest would sur- 
vive. Protestants of various creeds would be 
forced to unite in educational work, and then 
Catholic education and Protestant education 
would each work out its own inner principle 
to its legitimate conclusion. Religion could 
scarcely fail to be the gainer thereby. 



PART IV 
THE PERSPECTIVE 



CHAPTER XXI 

THE CHURCH AND THE CHILD— A GLANCE BACK- 
WARD 

205. How Can the We have seen that eduea- 

Church Keep in .. . ^ ■ ^ 

Touch with tion IS DO mechanical pro- 

Childhood? cess whereby a plastic child 

is molded upon fixed, un- 
yielding forms, but that it is a vital and per- 
sonal process in which the teacher must be 
plastic as well as the child. This is just as 
true of the church as educator as it is of the 
individual teacher. To keep in truly educa- 
tional touch with humanity, the church must 
be greatly different from any rigid, completed 
thing, which merely imposes itself upon grow- 
ing life. It must look to something more than 
mere "method." The possibilities of the 
church as educator depend upon her inmost 
relation to the basal forces of human life. Is 
the church's life inclusive of life? Is she 
herself a realisation of the vital forces of a 
growing soul, or is she abstract, removed from 
life, incapable of the plasticity that is de- 
manded of every teacher? In a word, the 
church's relation to education is inseparable 



374 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

from her relation to life in the largest sense. 
206. The Child in This truth is well illus- 

Church. trated in the remarkable 

educational work of the 
Jewish church. Here education blended into 
one with the national and the family life. 
The ethnic sense, the family sense, and the 
religious sense were inseparable, and the 
child knew no life apart therefrom. As soon 
as he was old enough to ask questions about 
the meaning of family religious observances, 
the parents told him— not a creed, but— a 
story. It was a story, too, in which he had a 
part, for it told about his ancestors and their 
deeds, and about his very own land and home 
and the things that he could see with his own 
eyes. Through it he learned of a covenant 
existing between himself and God, and how 
certain privileges, rights and duties came to 
him with the very blood that flowed within his 
arteries. Here was true religious education, 
even in the most modern sense, for it was life 
propagating itself directly and concretely. 

207- J^^ Child in We have already seen 

Christian Church. (Chapter IV) that Jesus 
provides for Christian edu- 
cation the same kind of foundation, for he 
recognises the child as alreadv living within 



THE CHURCH AND THE CHILD 375 

the kingdom of God. The position of the 
child in the early Christian church must have 
been very like that of the Jewish child in the 
Jewish church. For the Christians, too, were 
a people apart, and they were compacted to- 
gether by pressure from without. As a con- 
sequence, each Christian family, parents and 
children alike, must have identified itself with 
the religion of Christ. The entire life of the 
child was within the atmosphere of Christian- 
ity. He could not help being conscious of the 
vital power of Christ in the everyday conduct 
of the family and of the Christian community. 
He was in constant contact with those who 
were talking about Christ, working for aim, 
suffering for pirn, and with them Jle was 
sharply set off from the heathen world. Thus 
life itself was a school of religion. Life, re- 
ligion, and education were all one.^ 
208. How the But these conditions did 

away from ^Ot last. The SUCCesS of 

Childhood. Christianity in its struggle 

Ecclesiasticism •,! i ii • t j 

and Dogma. With heathenism produced 

as profound a change in the 

status of the child as it did in that of adults. 

The Jewish church was kept close to the child 

^ Bulwer-Lytton's Last Days of Pompeii gives a pretty 
picture of thie attitude of tlie early Christians toward 
tlieir diildren. See Book III, Cliapter III. 



376 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

by the fact of blood ; the early Christian 
church by the pressure of environment as 
well as by the enthusiasm of the new faith. 
In both cases religion was a life in which the 
child shared from the start. But Christian- 
ity as a universal religion had to forego all 
the educational power of the tribal and na- 
tional sense, and as a conquering religion it 
lost the cohesive influence of persecution. 
Furthermore, its transformation into ecclesi- 
asticism and into dogma wrought radical 
changes in the conditions of Christian educa- 
tion. For it withdrew the church from the 
child. The practical effect of ecclesiasticism 
is that spiritual life ceases to be a homespun, 
everyday matter; it is something centered 
yonder in the church or the priest. Perhaps 
it is not necessarily true that the more we 
have of the priest the less we have of the 
home, yet this is a real danger of ecclesias- 
ticism. There comes in a sharp separation 
between the sacred and the secular, and Christ 
is supposed to speak through the lips of a 
particular set of men, in particular places, at 
particular times. The church no longer lives 
by the side of the child ; but the child has to 
go to the church. 

The identification of Christianity with dog- 



THE CHURCH AND THE CHILD 377 

ma worked in the same direction. For the 
dogmas that became the test of Christian 
standing are far removed from the sponta- 
neous interests of children. A dogmatic reli- 
gion is essentially a religion for adults only. 
It cannot attach childhood and youth to itself 
in any except an external way. It makes 
them mere candidates for religion, and if it 
strives to educate them, it comes to them as 
instruction externally imposed. 

From the standpoint of religious education, 
then, the hardening of Christianity into a 
dogmatic and ecclesiastical system cannot be 
regarded otherwise than as a backward step. 
Or, if it be thought that this hardening pro- 
cess was, after all, an essential preliminary to 
securing control of a disorganised and largely 
barbaric world, it still remains true that child- 
hood paid a fearful price therefor. No doubt 
scholastic education performed a real service 
in the training of the people. Yet it was fa- 
tally infected with these faults: Instead of 
seeking to develop the individual from within 
through free self-expression, it presented a 
rigid, authoritative system to which he was 
required to conform; it put undue emphasis 
upon the intellectual apprehension of dogma; 
inasmuch as the dogma was taught before the 



378 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

child could assimilate it, undue emphasis was 
placed upon the memory as distinguished 
from the understanding; as a consequence, 
symbol was elevated above reality and experi- 
ence, the form above the content, grammar 
above literature, logic above truth, theory 
above observation. In a word, the church 
had grown away from the child. 

209. Influence of This general difficulty 

Augustinianism. -; xi. x i. j 

became further accentuated 
by the specific content of Christian dogma, 
particularly as regards its conception of sal- 
vation. This we may call, after the name of 
its greatest representative, Augustinianism. 
It approached humanity, childhood included, 
through a theory of sin, penalty, and judicial 
procedure. Life was not a nurserv of the 
spirit, but a judicial trial. The young, as 
well as the old, were thought of under two 
rigid categories, the saved and the unsaved, 
the elect and the non-elect. These categories 
furnish no basis for religious education. They 
hold us to a rigid "either-or", which leaves 
no space for "becoming" or development. 
They hinge everything upon what is done for 
the soul, and nothing upon its inner develop- 
ment. The full significance of this fact will 



THE CHURCH AND THE CHILD 379 

appear when we realise that Augustinianism 
permeated the whole church, Roman, Luth- 
eran, Anglican, Calvinistic, even Arminian. 
In every one of the churches a central thought 
has been that the individual belongs within 
one of the two classes, the saved and the un- 
saved. Everywhere the third alternative, a 
spiritual life in process of becoming, has been 
neglected.^ 

It was thus that the Puritan attitude to- 
ward children became a by-word and a warn- 
ing. It was so filled with Augustinianism 
that it had no gospel for childhood. The 
parent stood still in fear and trembling, won- 
dering whether his child was elected to life or 
to death, whether he would ever be converted 
or not. Puritanism fixed its eyes so stead- 
fastly upon the ideas of sin, redemption, de- 
crees, conversion, that it could not see chil- 
dren as children, or grasp the notion of devel- 
opment. Horace E. Scudder says: "The tend- 
ency of the system was to ignore childhood, 
to get rid of it as soon as possible. . . . 
There was, unwittingly, a reversal of the di- 
vine message, and it was said in effect to chil- 
dren, 'Except ye become as grown men and 

* But see Chapter IV, Appendix, 



380 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

be converted, ye cannot enter the kingdom of 
heaven.' "^ 

210. The It is clear that the Refor- 

Reformation and ,. ,. , , , • .1 

the Child. mation did not bring the 

church back to childhood. 
Yet herein lies a paradox. For the inner 
principle of the Reformation — direct access 
of the soul to truth and to God — is in the 
highest degree favorable to education. A soul 
so endowed demands development. Here is 
the kind of individualism that does, as a mat- 
ter of fact, underlie our modern universal ed- 
ucation. Luther himself demanded universal 
education; he would even make it com- 
pulsory; and he favored special provision 
for the education of the laboring classes. Un- 
der the impulse of Protestantism, Comenius 
sought to discover the natural order of growth 
of the mind, and to organise education accord- 
ingly. Davidson says that "all modern edu- 
cation has been built up upon the foundation 
which he laid. "^ Nevertheless, modern edu- 
cation,' in order to come to its own, has had to 
free itself from Protestantism as well as Ca- 
tholicism. Moreover, the Protestant churches, 

1 Childhood in Literature and Art, page 128, as quoted 
in Munger's Life of Bushnell, page 66. 

2 Thomas Davidson: History of Education (New 
York, 1901), page 193. 



THE CHURCH AND TFIE CHILD 381 

though they cherish in their bosoms an edu- 
cational principle of the first class, have failed 
to apply it thoroughly in their own specific 
task of religious education. There is a sense 
in which the schools of to-day are more Prot- 
estant than the Protestant churches them- 
selves. 

The explanation is that the Reformation 
came only very, very gradually to a recogni- 
tion of the meaning of its own principle. It 
would emancipate the soul from dogmatism, 
external authority, and ecclesiasticism, yet it 
set up a new dogmatism, a new infallibility, a 
new ecclesiasticism, and it snared itself in 
new political entaglements. It stood for nat- 
ural education, yet the village schools of the 
period, Munroe says, ''became battle-grounds 
of dogma. "^ The defects in the religious ed- 
ucation of to-day are due largely to our only 
partial trust in the true Reformation princi- 
ple. We have said that the soul can come 
directly to truth, to life, to God, but we do not 
give it the freedom, the stimulus to self- 
expression, the concrete as distinguished from 
the dogmatic material, through which alone it 
can fully realise its capacity for divine fel- 
lowship and co-operation. 

^ J. p. Mimroe : The Educational Ideal (Boston, 
1896), page 50. 



382 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

211. Influence of The Wesleyan revival was 

Revival. another outburst of fresh 

life, and for that reason it 
contained a germ of the profoundest educa- 
tional truth. It invited spontaneity, individ- 
ual access to God, and it was not over-solici- 
tous about dogma. It turned attention not 
so much to what goes on in the mind of God 
as to what goes on in our own minds; not so 
much to what is done for us as to what occurs 
in us and through us. It elevated the soul 
and its experiences to a dominant place in 
Christian thinking. To this extent Wesleyan- 
ism and the evangelical revival in general 
moved toward a standpoint from which a phi- 
losophy of religious education might easily 
have been discovered. All that was necessary 
was to widen the notion of religious experi- 
ence so as to take in the whole developing life 
of the child as well as the peculiar experi- 
ences of adults. The conception of religion 
as experience is, in fact, entirely capable of 
embracing all stages of life. But the stress 
was laid on certain special experiences of 
adults, and the wide range of the operations 
of the Divine Spirit in the soul of man was 
forgotten. Sudden and dramatic conversions 
fcecame the goal of the churches, and round 



THE CHURCH AND THE CHILD 383 

about these gathered at last the vast para- 
phernalia of modern evangelism. Thus, once 
more, a really vital movement in religion, be- 
cause it failed to work its own inner princi- 
ple, sacrificed an opportunity to become a 
first-class educational force.^ 

212. Bushnell's Horace Bushnell, that 

true prophet of the soul, 
demonstrated the greatness of his mind no- 
where more clearly than in his independent 
discovery of the true principles of religious 
education. Apparently without being ac- 
quainted with the work of Froebel, he 
wrought out for himself the essential doc- 
trines of modern education, and he applied 
them to the problems of religious nurture with 
a degree of firmness and insight that makes 
him one of our most notable educational au- 
thorities. He escaped the mechanical "either- 
or" of Augustinianism by laying hold upon 
the notion of development. He escaped the 
intellectualism that Protestantism inherited 
from scholasticism by seeing clearly that 
Christian life and character can come other- 
wise than through deliberate volition conse- 

^ It is only fair to say. however, that the theology, as 
diBtinguished from the practice, of the Wesleyan churches 
provides a practical basis for religious education. See 
Chapter IV, Appendix. 



384 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

quent upon the acceptance of a dogma. He 
saw the psychological falsity of the notion of 
an "age of discretion," at which a child, here- 
tofore irresponsible, suddenly assumes the 
burden of his own destiny. He broke through 
the false individualism that isolated the 
child's moral and spiritual life from his en- 
vironment, and, with extraordinary insight, 
he demonstrated the organic unity of the fam- 
ily. The principles of development, assimila- 
tion, self-expression, freedom, concreteness — 
all these were present in Bushnell's mind, 
though he did not completely formulate them 
all. In a word, the very principles for which 
we are now struggling to secure recognition 
were discovered by Bushnell and applied to 
our problems as early as 1847. 

Why, then, did his reform meet with such 
scanty success ? Why has it been necessary to 
wait a whole half century for the recognition, 
not to say fruition, of his prophetic insight? 
Partly because the old dogmatic conceptions 
of religious life were still too strong; partly 
because evangelism was over-valued. The re- 
vival was, indeed, the one point at which the 
current theology provided for spontaneity 
and freedom; this was the one channel 
through which the vital flood could pour it- 



THE CHURCH AND THE CHILD 385 

self. No wonder that it seemed so very im- 
portant, or that educative processes should be 
belittled in comparison. There was lacking, 
too, in Bushnell's time, the biological mode 
of thought which has so helped us to take in 
the notion of development. Finally, there 
was lacking the background of modern 
schools. The educational reform had not yet 
won its way to the popular consciousness. 
The common schools were still narrow, tradi- 
tional, repressive. Any thorough reform of 
religious education would have seemed revolu- 
tionary and fantastic. But now that a better 
understanding has come, simple justice re- 
quires us to confess that any advance we may 
make at the present time will necessarily pro- 
ceed upon the principles that Bushnell enun- 
ciated two generations ago. 

213. The Sunday- There are some who be- 

School 

Movement. lieve that the Sunday 

school has substantially 
solved the problem of religious education. It 
certainly marks, as Ave have seen in Chapter 
XVII, an enormous advance. But after we 
have acknowledged the virtues of this mag- 
nificent movement, the fact remains that it 
has not yet solved the essential problems in- 



386 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MOIIALS 

volved in its own work. For the Sunday 
school has made instruction, rather than edu- 
cation, its chosen work, and not even instruc- 
tion in religion as such, but instruction in the 
Bible. Its point of departure, too, has been 
essentially dogmatic. It has commonly sought, 
not so much to develop the religious germ in 
the soul of the pupil, as to fortify him with a 
set of dogmatic ideas supported by Bible 
texts. Again, missing the educational aim, 
the Sunday school has naturally neglected 
to employ the means and methods of edu- 
cation, even in its own chosen work of 
biblical instruction. To say that every 
principle of teaching is commonly violated 
is bad enough, but the whole truth is 
worse, and that is that, with the exception of 
a few schools, and of the primary department 
in many schools, there has been until recently 
scarcely any consciousness that teaching has 
any principles. Hence, the Sunday school has 
largely failed to teach the Bible even from the 
chosen point of view. The information that 
is imparted is scrappy and inaccurate, in 
many cases the merest hodge-podge of names, 
places, and stories, without connection, or per- 
spective, or correct sense of spiritual values. 



THE CnURCn and the child 387 



214. The Church's The aim of this sketch 

Success, and the , , . , , ,, 

Church's Failure, "as been to show, not the 

amount of the church's 
success or failure as educator, but only the 
essential conditions of success. The church 
has always been succeeding, yet never suc- 
ceeding enough. Her failures have resulted 
from the substitution of some sort of mechan- 
ism for life— the mechanism of a hierarchy 
exercising external authority, the mechanism 
of a fixed system of dogmas, the mechanism of 
a particular type of religious experience, the 
mechanism of a book. Her greatest successes 
have come, in large part, independently of 
specific theory, or plan, or machinery. Life 
has propagated itself from generation to gen- 
eration through the influence of personality 
in home, in school, in church, and this has 
been a genuine educational work. The church 
has succeeded in Christian education because 
she has had within her a life that lies deeper 
than all her formulas and all her forms of or- 
ganisation and work. A part of the educa- 
tional problem that is now before her is to 
give this life free course in relation to the 
young. But this implies that it have free 
course within her own consciousness. A 
church fettered by its own forms, whether 



388 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 



of organisation, or method, or doctrine, 
inevitably fails to do its best as educa- 
tor. The fundamental condition of success is 
that we live, and that we live abundantly, 
freely, and broadly enough to take in all gen- 
uine life. 



CHAPTER XXII 

EDUCATION AND PRESENT RELIGIOUS PROBLEMS 

215. Education The last chapter tended 

to show that only a vital, as 
distinguished from a dogmatic or formal, 
grasp of Christianity furnishes the proper 
background for Christian education. The 
further question may now be asked whether 
Christian education is not the chief support 
of vital piety. Three sets of contrasting no- 
tions are here involved. First comes the dog- 
matic as contrasted with the vital conception 
of discipleship. The dogmatic view makes 
the acceptance of a creed a preliminary to 
Christian living, the vital view puts living 
first, and makes the creed a product and ex- 
pression of life. The one identifies education 
with instruction, while the other identifies it 
with development of the personality. Un- 
derneath this opposition lies, in the second 
place, the problem of authority. Here the 
opposing ideas are those of truth external to 
one 's being and imposed upon one from with- 
out, and truth involved in one's being and 
realised in an inner experience. The one 



390 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

- 

would make of education a bestowal upon the 
child, the other an unfolding of the child. 
But deeper still lies, in the third place, an 
opposition between two conceptions of God's 
relation to the world— God as existing in only 
external relations to creation, and God as im- 
manent in the whole of it. The former con- 
ception, representing him as coming into our 
lives chiefly in special experiences, is well able 
to provide for religious crises, but not for con- 
tinuous religious development. The doctrine 
of divine immanence, however, provides a 
basis for continuous development, or educa- 
tion proper. 

The Christian thought of our time has al- 
ready made choice between these alternative 
views. The immanent God, whose authority 
is internal and identical with the laws of self- 
realisation, and with whom we come into rela- 
tions not primarily through belief but rather 
through the whole circle of impulses and as- 
pirations that make us men— this is the stand- 
point that we have won. Here we find not 
only a basis for a theory of religious educa- 
tion, but also a practical condition of vital 
piety. We perceive that Christian education, 
which promotes the growing sense of God, 
must always be the chief means of maintain- 



PRESENT RELIGIOUS PROBLEMS 391 

ing such piety. The inspiration to spiritual 
living is not a set of beliefs, or even occasional 
intimacy with God, but our realisation of him 
as the ground of our whole life and of all the 
things with which we have to do. Now, edu- 
cation is the means by which the immature 
human being is made acquainted with his 
world and with himself; it is the process by 
which we reveal to him what constitutes real' 
living. It is therefore the primary means of 
maintaining in the individual and in the 
world at large the comforting, joy-giving, all- 
conquering piety that realises God as the ever- 
present basis, law, and end of our life. 
216. Education This point of view also 

reveals the relation of edu- 
cation to the newer, or historical method of 
studying the Bible. The Scriptures are an 
outgrowth of life. They are a product of ex- 
perience, chiefly of religious experiences that 
arose through the continuous, life-giving touch 
of the divine hand upon men and peoples 
through a long history. To study the Scrip- 
tures by historical methods is simply to get as 
near to these experiences as possible. To ask 
when, by whom, under what circumstances, 
and for what primary purpose each book was 
written implies nothing more than common 



892 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

honesty as to facts and a just valuation of 
God's presence in actual events. Yet many 
persons have supposed that to study the Bible 
just as we study other history and other lit- 
erature robs it of its spiritual glow and so 
lessens its value for spiritual culture. Hence, 
"devotional" study has been set apart by 
itself as though it were independent of the 
methods by which alone historical truth can be 
ascertained. Yet surely the truth of Bible 
history and the truth about its documents 
must be good for the spiritual nature. 

It is easy to understand, however, why the 
historical point of view comes as a shock to 
many persons who were reared in relatively 
theoretical and abstract views of the Bible. 
Under these views, Biblical characters and 
events were not as much plain facts as sym- 
bols of spiritual truth. The story of the 
exodus and the wanderings in the desert, for 
instance, was taught as if every incident 
thereof had a personal reference to each pupil. 
As a result, the historic facts tended to sink 
into a hazy background, and the Bible itself 
hovered in sacred mistiness between heaven 
and earth. When the air grows transparent, 
and we behold the book and all its contents 
resting upon the very same earth whereon we 



PRESENT RELIGIOUS PROBLEMS 393 

stand, our first impulse is to think that it is 
less a divine book and its contents less a di- 
vine revelation. Yet in reality, losing the 
Bible as a collection of symbols, we have 
gained the Bible as a record of real life. Giv- 
ing up the abstract, we receive the concrete in 
return. Finding Biblical persons and events 
nearer ourselves, we find the God who was 
moving within them also nearer. 

Here lies the positive educational signifi- 
cance of the historical method. It helps us to 
meet the pedagogic rule of putting the con- 
crete before the abstract. It brings us also 
closer to the prime means of spiritual educa- 
tion, personality, and it endows biblical per- 
sonages with human interest. Making us real- 
ise how much we have in common with the 
biblical characters, it has made vivid the spir- 
itual laws that pervade all life, ours as well as 
theirs. We have, in fact, only begun to guess 
the possible value of the Bible as an instru- 
ment of religious education. What is now 
needed is a large body of intelligent middle- 
men who will carry to the whole people the 
practical fruits of technical biblical learning.^ 

' Not, of course, the technical paraphernalia of such 
learning, or the disputations of scholars, but the assured 
results. For a discussion of the relation of the historical 
method to practical religion, see an address by Thomas 
C. Hall in the Proceedings of the Religions Education As- 
sociation, 1904. 



394 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 



217. Education As never before, perhaps, 

and the Revival. ,, , ,. p r-i-, • ,• 

the relation oi Christian 

nurture to the revival is coming into the 
foreground. There is discernible an unfortu- 
nate tendency to look upon these two methods 
or processes as somehow opposed to each 
other, whereas both are necessary. There is 
no reason to suppose that the oral presenta- 
tion of truth through preaching, or the strong 
stirring of men's emotions through appeals to 
conscience, or the influence of social conta- 
gion in turning men's minds to the problems 
of duty and destiny, or sudden awakenings 
from indifference and sin are to cease in the 
life of the church. What may be looked for, 
however, is first, clearer recognition of the 
developmental and social elements in the re- 
claiming of adult sinners, and especially, sec- 
ond, a recovery from our pernicious habit of 
trying to save the young through the abrupt 
processes of the revival instead of the gradual 
processes of education.^ "The sublime vital 
fact in conversion," says President King, 
"surely is that we have now entered upon a 
voluntary, life-long, personal relation to God, 
and so thrown ourselves open to the presence 

1 See Chapter X of George A Coe : The Religion of a 
Mature Mind (Chicago, 1902). 



PRESENT RELIGIOUS PROBLEMS 395 

and power in our lives of the personal Spirit 
of the loving, mighty God."^ "Whether we 
call this conversion, or decision, or commit- 
ment, it is certainly a normal outcome of wise 
and continuous religious training. What 
does, or can the revival do beyond restoring to 
men some meagre part of what they have 
missed through imperfect education, or 
through their own neglect of their education ? 
The revival is primarily remedial, while edu- 
cation is primarily constructive. For this 
reason education in religion must be the chief 
means of saving the world. After the plastic 
years of youth few men are converted, and 
even during the plastic years the revival never 
succeeds in making up for the awful waste of 
young life through our neglect of education 
from the cradle up. Our one first-class chance 
at men is during their years of growth. The 
progress of the kingdom depends primarily 
upon our securing control of more and more 
children and educating them right. Failing 
to do this, we can never, by any possible 
means, "catch up" with our task. 

1 Henry Churchill King : Christian Training and the 
Revival as Methods of Converting Men (Pamphlet pub- 
lished by the Secretarial Institute. 153 La Salle Street, 
Chicago, 1903), page 29. One of the best balanced dis- 
cussions of this topic known to me. 



396 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

218. Education Those who think upon 

and the Social 

Problem. (1) the problems of human 

The Situation. progress are coming to see 

that perhaps the greatest 
practical problem for education at the present 
day grows out of the social situation, particu- 
larly the struggle between individualistic and 
social tendencies. On the one hand, the in- 
dividual is more than ever. He has greater 
liberty of thought and action, greater political 
rights, greater opportunity for acquiring 
knowledge, more complete control of the con- 
ditions of life. The economic prizes for the 
very able were never so large. Yet, on the 
other hand, the individual has never been as 
dependent upon others as at present. One 
cannot obtain the simplest article of food or 
of information without the co-operation of a 
long series of men. Trace the course of a 
beefsteak or a loaf of bread backward from 
your home to the point of its production, and 
you will see how complicated society is be- 
coming. One cannot buy or sell, hire or be 
hired, or cast a vote, without being hemmed 
in, limited, controlled, by a vast network of 
human relations. The tendency is toward the 
increase of these relations, and this gives op- 



PRESENT RELIGIOUS PROBLEMS 397 

portunity for increasing organisation of men 
and of capital. 

Our social situation is largely determined 
by the clashing of these two tendencies, the 
organising and the individualising, and by 
the odd way in which one passes into the 
other. For instance, the labor union repre- 
sents the principle of solidarity, of co-opera- 
tion as against unlimited competition. Yet 
as against the employer and the non-union 
man it is largely individualistic, and it does 
not always with sufficient clearness show a 
sense of subordination to law. On the other 
hand, capitalists, moved by the organising 
principle of solidarity, combine among them- 
selves, the individual submitting to the will 
of the group. But the group, in turn, is fre- 
quently individualistic in its effort to crush 
labor unions, and anarchistic in its evasions 
of law and its corruption of public officials. 
With both laboring men and capitalists, too, 
the organisation itself now and th^n becomes 
a tool in the hands of some strong but un- 
scrupulous individual. 

What is to come out of this clashing and 
crushing, this blowing hot and blowing cold? 
Certainly no truce based upon self-interest 
can solve the problem. Such a truce is simply 



398 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

an effort to cure the ills of selfishness by 
means of organised and armed selfishness! 
We shall not pluck figs from thistles. As 
long as selfishness is the motive to peace, there 
will be evasion and violation of agreements, 
and the war will be simply disguised where 
before it was open. Neither legislation nor 
combination, though they can do something, 
can change the leopard's spots. 

219. (2) The Any permanent solution 

interVetation. of the difficulty must in- 

clude a change in the gen- 
eral current of motive, a reversal of the 
accepted presupposition. Society must have 
a new heart. The whole industrial body is 
sick for the want of it. The modern world 
revolves about the ideas of individualism and 
social unity without realising their inner 
principle. True individualism, which is the 
only practical kind, is simply the Christian 
principle of the final worth of the individual ; 
as, on the other hand, the tendency to organ- 
isation, as far as it is or can be sound, is 
nothing more or less than the Christian prin- 
ciple of losing our merely individual will in 
regard for others. In Christianity and no- 
where else do these apparently opposing tend- 
encies find their unity and also a motive 



PRESENT RELIGIOUS PROBLEMS 399 

power for their mutual realisation. The in- 
dividual is of final worth because the Eternal 
is in him, because God communicates himself 
to his creature and bestows upon him im- 
mortal possibilities. But the individualism 
herein implied cannot be identified with self- 
seeking, for the God and Father of each is the 
God and Father of all, and all we are breth- 
ren. Thus the foundation of self-reverence 
is equally a foundation of reverence for 
others. The individualistic and the social- 
ising motives here blend into one through the 
Christian thought of God. Here liberty and 
law, the interest of the individual and the in- 
terest of society, become identical. 

220. How The purpose of Christ to 

Shall Society Get , . i . t j.- c 

a New Heart? bring about a realisation or 

this unity of men under the 
fatherhood of God is expressed in the term, 
the kingdom of God. This kingdom is the 
actual reality of life, however much we choose 
other fancied goods, however much we 
violate the laws of our own being. The king- 
dom is present as well as future, visible as 
well as invisible. It has begun to secure con- 
trol of the world's resources, and it will not 
rest until its control is universal. Every 
shop, factory, railroad, farm, mine; every 



400 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

profession and trade; all branches of gov- 
ernment, all learning and art— all are to come 
under the control of Christ. This cannot be 
accomplished by an external or machine-made 
reform ; it requires inner regeneration issuing 
in love to God and man. Nor can it be ac- 
complished by merely rescuing here and there 
a man who is sinking in the waves of world- 
liness. To regenerate society implies more 
than the healing of its sick members; it im- 
plies the prevention of sickness. Society can 
be regenerated only by bringing the young to 
a realisation of the true meaning of life be- 
fore they are subjected to the full stress of the 
two warring tendencies. Undoubtedly some- 
thing can be done by persuading men who are 
in the thick of the fight. They can be induced 
to soften the conflict ; they will consent to ar- 
bitration, or they will give of their wealth to 
alleviate the condition of those who are 
wounded in the struggle. But preaching to 
men who are in the midst of a battle will not 
stop the battle. It will not give a new heart 
to the opposing armies. The war can be 
stopped only by stopping the supply of fight- 
ing men, and this can be done only by de- 
veloping the social sense through the Chris- 
tian education of the young. Children, the 



PRESENT RELIGIOUS PROBLEMS 401 

generality of them, must be brought to realise 
that their personality is holy ground, and 
that, for the same reason, the personality of 
their fellows is holy. God in me, and God 
in my fellows ; God the Father of us all — this, 
brought to clear consciousness and developed 
into its practical consequences, is the solution, 
and the only solution, of our social problem. 
It is the kingdom of God on earth. 

221. (4) A New But existing modes of 

Religious ,. . j ^- i 

Education religious education are only 

Needed. partly adapted to this work. 

Not only are present meth- 
ods defective ; their point of view also is only 
partially correct. Their view of the indi- 
vidual and of society is unconsciously per- 
meated with presuppositions that have come 
down from scholastic theology and from the 
older forms of monarchical government. A 
good citizen, as measured by the standards of 
monarchical society, may be a very bad one as 
measured by the needs of democratic society. 
When a people is governed from above, the 
virtuous citizen is assumed to be the submis- 
sive one. He is diligent in business, peace- 
able, honest, charitable, ready to defend his 
country against its enemies, but he is not 
supposed to interfere with the course of 



402 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALtS 

events or to meddle with the powers that con- 
trol society. But in a democracy the merely 
submissive citizen is a public danger. Here 
the only safety lies in the aggressiveness that 
springs from a keen sense of individual re- 
sponsibility for political and social conditions. 
Again, under the scholastic conception of 
Christianity, faith also is an act of submission 
to external authority. It involves a certain 
abnegation of individuality, with no adequate 
offset in the increase of sociality. Doubtless 
Protestantism has in principle overcome this 
notion. When we stop to think seriously 
about faith we discover that it is properly the 
self-assertion of the deepest things of the in- 
dividual heart and mind. Though it involves 
the renunciation of self-will, it is nevertheless 
an aggressive act. It is the taking of sides 
in the mightiest conflict of ideals, and the 
active devotion of one's energy to the chosen 
cause. Yet our religious education still 
interprets faith as submission to external 
authority, still fails clearly to recognise the 
aggressive element in the social teachings of 
Jesus. Faith is therefore placed in an apolo- 
getic attitude toward the modern mind, and 
religion remains rather a refuge from social 
ills than a rebuker and rectifier of them. 



PRESENT RELIGIOUS PROBLEMS 403 

"VMiat is wanted in our religious education 
is more openness toward modern knowledge, 
more boldness to take advantage of its help 
in the interpretation of life, and, in respect 
to social and political conditions, more of the 
fighting spirit. Christ sends into the world 
not peace but a sword. Christianity has a 
definite practical propaganda which involves 
both the individual and society. It fulfils its 
mission to either one only as it fulfils its mis- 
sion to the other also. The child and the 
youth should therefore be imbued with the 
sense of having a positive mission, of being 
enlisted in a great cause, and of participating 
in a great conflict. Not until this spirit is 
somehow infused into our religious education 
can it even approximately fulfil its mission 
toward society.^ 

222. Education "VV^e are hearing in these 

and the Historic , ,, ^^ -r, ^ . 

Christ. clays the call, Back to 

Christ! Weary of labor 

over creeds and formulas, over theories and 

speculations, we are finding rest and also in- 

1 Cf. George E. Dawson : Science and Religious Edu- 
cation. — Biblical World, March, 1904, page 200. In this 
article Professor Dawson strongly Insists that religious 
education must be broad enough to Include a religious 
use of the sciences of nature. Religious education must 
really adjust men to the world in which they are placed. 
This Includes the laws of their own bodies and minds, 
and the industrial, economic, and political processes of 
society. 



404 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

spiration in the Christ considered as an his- 
torical person. What significance has this 
movement for education? It is clear, in the 
first place, that in our habitual thought of 
Christ as Savior, Revealer, Prophet, Priest, or 
King, we have had in mind chiefly his relation 
to adults. Almost always his mission has been 
looked upon as the making over of men rather 
than the making of men. But he is also Ed- 
ucator. He enters into the whole develop- 
mental process of humanity as a positive, 
formative principle— an organic principle, if 
you will. This is not a new thought, yet we 
have scarcely realised that an organic prin- 
ciple in humanity becomes effective chiefly 
through its influence upon men in their im- 
mature, plastic years. The making over of 
men can never be anything more than a neces- 
sary addendum or necessary preliminary to 
the central process of making men. The 
world is to be saved chiefly through Christ's 
influence upon children and youth. 

Here appears the educational significance 
of the new emphasis upon the historic Christ. 
Adults may appreciate something of the 
Christ of dogma or the Christ of mystical 
experiences; but children and youth must 
meet him as a historical person, essentially 



PRESENT RELIGIOUS PROBLEMS 405 

like other persons, or they will not feel or 
appreciate his power. Now, appreciation of 
the historic Christ puts into its proper place 
the supreme force in education, personality. 
With how many of us was the first glimpse 
of the Master a distant one, like our knowl- 
edge of the atoms or of the luminiferous 
ether. He was in every sense unearthly. But 
with what refreshment of soul did we after- 
yard discover the utter concreteness of his 
person, and the fact of our fellowship with 
him through the ordinary processes of his- 
tory ! As thinkers we may well believe in the 
metaphysical union of God and man in 
Christ; as mystics we may well recognise the 
presence of the real Christ in the heart; but 
as men, rather than metaphysicians or mys- 
tics, it is of inestimable value to find that, 
just as we are related to Washington and 
Lincoln in the unity of life that constitutes 
our Republic, so we are historically one with 
Jesus in the unity of the kingdom of God. 
Religious education may culminate in a grasp 
of the metaphysical or mystical Christ, but 
it must begin with a sense of membership in 
a community of persons of whom Christ is one 
in exactly the same way as other persons. 
Thus it is that the historic Christ is the 



406 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

supreme Educator. But this is not all. Even 
when we advance to the notions of incarna- 
tion and atonement, we are not outside the 
circle of educational ideas. For incarnation 
is the supreme instance of the sharing of life 
through which an incomplete life attains- un- 
foldment or education. As to atonement, 
whatever tragedy of the divine heart is sug- 
gested by this term, the working out of the 
fact in the world, the historical at-one-ment 
of man and God, is accomplished by the essen- 
tially educational method of revelation 
through personality in the sharing of life. 
The process of redemption is at root all one 
with the process of education. A parent who 
is true to his parenthood, or a teacher -v^ho 
is true to his calling, not less than a priest 
who ministers at the altar, distributes the 
bread of life to hungry souls; he drinks the 
cup that Jesus drank, is baptised with the 
baptism wherewith he was baptised, becomes 
a part of the great process of incarnation 
whereby God reconciles the world to him- 
self 1^ 

> See John 17 : 20-23. 



A SELECTED AND CLASSIFIED 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Note. — This Bibliography Is not intended to be ex- 
haustive in any part. It includes no publications in 
foreign languages, and it omits many important publi- 
cations in English. It is sufficiently extensive, how- 
ever, to show where some of the important material on 
all the topics discussed in this book may be found. 

BIBLIOGRAPHIES 

General Bibliographies of Education: 

G. Stanley Hall and John M. Mansfield: 

Hints Toward a Select and Descriptive 

Bibliography of Education (Boston, 

1893). 
W. S. Monroe: Bibliography of Education 

(New York, 1897). 
Bibliographies of Religious and Moral 

Education: 
A general list is given in S. B. Haslett: 

The Pedagogical Bible School (New 

York, 1903), page 349. 
On the General History of the Sunday 

School and Its Predecessors, H. Clay 

Trumbull: The Sunday School (The 

"Yale Lectures," Philadelphia, 1896), 

page 381. 
On the history and statistics of the Sunday 



408 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

school in America, M. C. Brown: Sun- 
day-School Movements in America (New 
York, 1901), page 246. 

On Sunday-school pedagogy in general, A. 
C. Ellis in Pedagogical Seminary, Vol- 
ume III., page 402. 

Books for boys and books about boys, Vol- 
ume III, Number 2 of How to Help Boys 
(see list of periodicals in the next divi- 
sion of this Bibliography). 

PERIODICALS AND PROCEEDINGS 

Proceedings of the Religious Education Asso- 
ciation (published annually at 153 La Salle 
Street, Chicago). Indispensable collections 
of addresses and papers covering every 
phase of religious education. 

Proceedings of the National Educational As- 
sociation (published annually by the Secre- 
tary, Winona, Minn.). 

The Biblical World (monthly, Chicago). 
Publishes many valuable articles on reli- 
gious education. 

The American Journal of Religious Psychol- 
ogy and Education (Worcester, Mass.). 

Work with Boys.— Formerly called How to 
Help Boys (quarterly, 14 Beacon Street, 
Boston). 



SELECTED AND CLASSIFIED BIBLIOGRAPHY 409 

Association Boys (bi-monthly, 3 West 29th 
Street, New York). 

The Catholic Review of Reviews (monthly, 
Chicago). Formerly the Review of Catho- 
lic Pedagogy. Gives considerable space to 
educational topics. 

The Pedagogical Seminary (quarterly, 
Worcester, Mass.). Prints many articles 
on religious and moral training. 

Studies in Education (4401 Sansom Street, 
Philadelphia). Devoted largely to child- 
study. 

The Educational Review (monthly, New 
York). Discusses the broader phases of ed- 
ucation. 

HISTORIES OF EDUCATION AND OF 
EDUCATIONAL THEORIES 

Thomas Davidson: A History of Education 
(New York, 1901). 

R, H. Quick: Educational Reformers (New 
York, 1890). 

J. P. Munroe: The Educational Ideal (Bos- 
ton, 1896). 

S. S. Laurie : Historical Survey of Pre-Chris- 
tian Education (London, 1895). 

H. Clay Trumbull: The Sunday School: Its 



410 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

Origin, Mission, Methods, and Auxiliaries 
(Philadelphia, 1896). 
Marianna C. BroAvn: Sunday-School Move- 
ments in America (New York, 1901). 

THE RELATION OF EDUCATION TO 
MORALS AND RELIGION 

Nicholas Murray Butler: The Meaning of 
Education (New York, 1898), Chapter I.; 
also Lecture I in Principles of Religious 
Education (New York, 1900). 

Charles A. McMurry: The Elements of Gen- 
eral Method (New York, 1903), Chapter I 
—''The Chief Aim of Education." 

John Dewey: My Pedagogic Creed (New 
York: E. L. Kellogg & Co.). A small pam- 
phlet, but it contains the gist of a whole 
theory of education. 

H. H. Home: The Philosophy of Education 
(New York, 1904), especially Chapter 
VIII. 

George A. Coe and Edwin D. Starbuck: Ad- 
dresses on "Religious Education as a Part 
of General Education," in Proceedings of 
the Religious Education Association, 1903 
(Chicago). 

J. L. Spalding: Means and Ends of Educa- 
tion (Chicago, 1901). Also Education and 



SELECTED AND CLASSIFIED BIBLIOGRAPHY 411 

the Future of Religion (pamphlet, The Ave 

Maria, Notre Dame, Indiana). 
Principles of Religious Education (New York, 

1900). 
George A. Coe: The Religion of a Mature 

Mind (Chicago, 1902), Chapter X.-" Sal- 
vation by Education." 
Third Year-Book of the National Herbart 

Society (Chicago, 1897). The entire volume 

is devoted to- moral education. 

THE PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING, 

ESPECIALLY AS APPLIED TO 

CHARACTER-FORMATION 

J. L. Hughes: Froebel's Educational Laws 
for all Teachers (New York, 1899). 

Friedrich Froebel: The Education of Man 
(English translation, New York, 1888). 
The Student's Froebel (Boston, 1894) is a 
small volume of extracts from The Educa- 
tion of Man. 

Thomas Davidson: A History of Education 
(New York, 1901), Division III. 

Patterson DuBois: The Point of Contact in 
Teaching (New York, 1901). Also The 
Natural Way in Moral Training (New 
York, 1903). 



412 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

William James: Talks to Teachers on Psy- 
chology (New York, 1899). 

Charles A, McMurry: The Elements of Gen- 
eral Method (New York, 1903). Also 
Charles A. and Frank M. McMurry: The 
Method of the Kecitation (New York, 
1903). Chapter XII gives a summary of 
the laws that underlie the process of 
teaching. 

R. N. Roark: Method in Education (New 
York: American Book Co.). The first 95 
pages give a brief discussion of method, the 
recitation, drills, reviews, examinations, 
etc. 

EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 

General Principles: 

William James : Talks to Teachers on Psy- 
chology (New York, 1899). 

James Sully: Teacher's Hand-Book of Psy- 
chology, 4th edition (New York, 1900). 

Dexter and Garlick: Psychology in the 
School-Room (New York, 1900). 
The Child-Mind and Its Development: 

James Sully: Studies of Childhood (New 
York, 1900). Children's Ways (New 
York, 1902) by the same author, is made 



SELECTED AND CLASSIFIED BIBLIOGRAPHY 41£ 

up of selections from Studies of Child- 
hood, with some additional matter. 

J. G. Compayre: The Intellectual and 
Moral Development of the Child,. 2 vol- 

• umes (New York, 1896-1902). 

Frederick Tracy: The Psychology of 
Childhood (Boston, 1901). 

A. K Taylor: The Study of the Child 
(New York, 1899). 

E. A. Kirkpatrick : Fundamentals of Child- 
Study (New York; 1903). 

Irving King: The Psychology of Child De- 
velopment (Chicago, 1903).. 

J. M. Baldwin : Social and Ethical Inter- 
pretations of Mental Development (New 
York, 1897). 

S. B. Haslett: The Pedagogical Bible 
School (New York,* 1903), Part II. 

Earl Barnes: Studies in Education (See 
Periodical List). 

G. Stanley Hall: Adolescence, 2 volumes 
(New York, 1904). 

First and Second Year-Books of the Na- 
tional Herbart Society (Chicago). Con- 
tain the pros and cons of the theory of 
"recapitulation" and its educational ap- 
plications. 



414 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

The Psychology of Eeligion: 

Edwin D. Starbuck : The Psychology of Re- 
ligion (London, 1899). 

George A. Coe: The Spiritual Life (New- 
York, 1900). 

Gr. Stanley Hall : Address on The Religious 
Content of the Child-Mind, in Principles 
of Religious Education (New York, 
1900). Also Chapter XIV of Adoles- 
cence, 2 volumes (New York, 1904). 

George E. Dawson: Article on Children's 
Interest in the Bible, in the Pedagogical 
Seminary, Volume VII, page 151. 

William Byron Forbush : The Boy Problem 
(Boston, 1901). 

Earl Barnes: Article on Children's Atti- 
tude Toward Theology, in Studies in Ed- 
ucation, Volume II, page 283. 

Rufus M. Jones: A Boy's Religion from 
Memory (Philadelphia, 1902). 

John Dewey and Henry Churchill King: 
Addresses on "Religious Education as 
Conditioned by Modern Psychology and 
Pedagogy," in Proceedings of the Re- 
ligious Education Association, 1903 
(Chicago), 



SELECTED AND CLASSIFIED BIBLIOGRAPHY 415 

THE CHRISTIAN VIEW OF CHILD- 
DEVELOPMENT 

Horace Bushnell : Christian Nurture (New 
York: Scribners), 

Henry Churchill King: Christian Training 
and the Revival as Means of Converting 
Men (Pamphlet published by the Secre- 
tarial Institute, 153 LaSalle St., Chicago). 

Henry Van Dyke : God and Little Children 
(New York, 1890). 

F. G. Hibbard: The Religion of Childhood 
(Cincinnati: Poe & Hitchcock, 1866). 

R. J. Cooke : Christianity and Childhood 
(New York, 1891). 

George A. Coe: The Religion of a Mature 
Mind (Chicago, 1902), Chapter X. 

James Sully: Studies in Childhood (New 
York, 1900), Chapter VII. This chapter 
analyses the good and evil impulses of chil- 
dren. 

THE FAMILY AS AN EDUCATIONAL 
INSTITUTION 

Horace Bushnell: Christian Nurture (New 
York: Scribners). 

George B. Stewart and Jean F. Loba: Ad- 
dresses on "Religious and Moral Education 
Through the Home, ' ' in Proceedings of the 



416 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

Religious Education Associatioii, 1903 
(Chicago). 

How to Help Boys, January, 1902 (see list of 
Periodicals under "Work with Boys"). 
This number is devoted to "The Boy and 
the Home." 

Patterson DuBois: Fireside Child-Study 
(New York, 1903). Also Beckonings from 
Little Hands (New York, 1900). 

Jacob A. Riis: The Peril and the Preserva- 
tion of the Home (Philadelphia, 1903). 

Franklin Carter: Address on "The College 
and the Home, ' ' in The Message of the Col- 
lege to the Church (Boston, 1901). 

Samuel T. Dutton: Social Phases of Educa- 
tion in the School and the Home (New 
York, 1900). 

Herbert Spencer: Education, Intellectual, 
Moral, and Physical (New York, 1872). 

THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 

The Graded Bible School (For sale by W. F. 
McMillen, 153 La Salle St., Chicago). Four 
valuable little pamphlets published by the 
Association of Congregational Churches of 
Illinois. One of the simplest, most prac- 
tical introductions to modern methods. 



SELECTED AND CLASSIFIED BIBLIOGRAPHY 417 

Burton and Mathews: Principles and Ideals 
for the Sunday School (Chicago, 1903). 

Principles of Religious Education (New- 
York, 1900), and The Sunday-School Out- 
look (New York, 1901), Two series of lec- 
tures on various problems. 

Proceedings of the Religious Education As- 
sociation, 1903 and 1904 (Chicago). 

S. B. Haslett : The Pedagogical Bible School 
(New York, 1903). 

George Whitefield ]\Iead : Modern Methods in 
Sunday-School Work (New York, 1903). 
Contains a large amount of information as 
to successful devices of all sorts 

John Adams : Primer on Teaching, with Spe- 
cial Reference to Sunday-School Work 
(Edinburgh, 1903). Short, simple, and 
practical. 

Walter L. Hervey : Picture- Work (New York : 
Revell). A capital little book on how to 
make truth vivid by story-telling, by the 
use of pictures, by good teaching, etc. 

W. W. Smith : Sunday-school Teaching (Mil- 
waukee: Young Churchman Co., 1903). 
Good but fragmentary treatment of the 
principles of teaching. 

A. H. McKinney: Bible-School Pedagogy 



418 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

(New York, 1900). A scrappy book, but it 
contains many useful hints. 

Mary J. C. Foster: The Kindergarten of the 
Church (New York, 1894). 

Joshua Fitch: Educational Aims and Meth- 
ods (Cambridge, 1900). Lecture I is on 
"Methods of Instruction as Illustrated in 
the Bible'"'; Lecture XII, "The Sunday 
School of the Future," has special refer- 
ence to conditions in Great Britain. 

George W. Pease: Articles on "A Course of 
Study in Outline for the Kindergarten 
Grades of the Bible School," in the Biblical 
World, November and December, 1903. 
Also article on "A Suggestion Toward a 
Rational Bible-School Curriculum," in the 
Biblical World, Volume XVI., page 98. 

H. Clay Trumbull: The Sunday School: Its 
Origin, Mission, Methods, and Auxiliaries 
(Philadelphia, 1896). 

Marianna C. Brown: Sunday-School Move- 
ments in America (New York, 1901). 

SOCIETIES AND CLUBS 

William Byron Forbush : The Boy Problem 

(Boston, 1901). 
Work with Boys (magazine). See list of 

Periodicals and Proceedings. 



SELECTED AND CLASSIFIED BIBLIOGRAPHY 419 

Association Boys (magTzine). See list of 
Periodicals and Proceedings. 

Francis E. Clark: Training the Church of 
the Future (New York, 1902). 

Winifred Buck: Boys' Self-Governing Clubs 
(New York, 1903). Treats chiefly of clubs 
for street boys. 

F. G. Cressey: The Church and Young Men 
(Chicago, 1903). 

Proceedings of the Religious Education 
Association, 1903 and 1904 (Chicago) 

George A. Dawson and others: A Boy's Re- 
ligion (pamphlet, published by the Inter- 
national Committee of the Young Men's 
Christian Associations, 3 West 29th St., 
New York). 

George A. Coe: The Young Men's Christian 
Association and the Boy (pamphlet, pub- 
lished by the Secretarial Institute, 153 La 
Salle St., Chicago). 

ACADEMIES AND COLLEGES 

LeBaron Russell Briggs: School, College and 
Character (Boston, 1902). 

Francis G. Peabody: The Religion of an Ed- 
ucated Man (New York, 1903). Also an 
article in the Forum for July, 1901. 

The Message of the College to the Church 



420 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

(Boston, 1901). Addresses by six eminent 
educators. 

Charles F. Thwing: The American College 
in American Life (New York, 1897). 

"Waitman Barbe: Going to College (New 
York, 1899). 

J. TI. Canfield: The College Student and His 
Problems (New York, 1902). 

J. H. Crooker: Religious Freedom in Amer- 
ican Education (Boston, 1903). 

H. Thistleton Mark: Individuality and the 
Moral Aim in American Education (Lon- 
don, 1901), Chapter XIL 

H. M. Stanley: Article, "Remarks on Reli- 
gious Education," in Educational Review, 
Volume XV, page 392. Contains some 
pointed remarks concerning the college 
chapel service. 

National Conference of Secondary Educa- 
tion (Chicago: Northwestern University). 

H. D. Sheldon: Student Life and Customs 
(New York, 1901). Chapter V, Section 6 
has the title, "Religious Organisations 
Among Students." A bibliography of the 
subject is given at page 346. 

THE RELATION OF STATE SCHOOLS 
TO MORALS AND RELIGION. 

Charles H. Thurber and John W. Carr: Ad- 



SELECTED AND CLASSIFIED BIBLIOGRAPHY 421 

dresses on "Religious and Moral Education 
Through the Public Schools," in Proceed- 
ings of the Religious Education Association 
for 1903 (Chicago). Also discussion on 
pages 164-172. 

Edward A. Pace and William T. Harris: 
Addresses in Proceedings of the National 
Educational Association for 1903 ; also the 
discussion that follows these addresses. 

Report of United States Commissioner of Ed- 
ucation for 1896-97, p. 2171. Statistics on 
the reading of Bible, etc., in public schools. 

Report of United States Commissioner of Ed- 
ucation, 1888-89, Volume I, page 629. The 
celebrated decision of the Wisconsin Su- 
preme Court as to the use of the Bible in 
schools. 

John Ireland (Archbishop) : Address on 
"State Schools and Parish Schools," in 
Proceedings of the National Educational 
Association, 1890, page 119. 

Levi Seeley: Article on "Religious Instruc- 
tion in American Schools," in Educational 
Review, Volume XV., page 121. 

E. E. White: Address on "Religion ia the 
School," in Proceedings of the Interna- 
tional Congress of Education of the 



422 EDUCATION IN RELIGION AND MORALS 

World's Columbian Exposition (New York, 
1894), page 295. 

John T. Prince: Article on "The Bible in 
Education," in Educational Review, No- 
vember, 1898, page 353. 

Felix Adler: The Moral Instruction of Chil- 
dren (New York, 1895). 

Ella Flagg Young: Ethics in the School (Chi- 
cago, 1902). 

R. E. Hughes : The Making of Citizens (Lon- 
don, 1902). For the relation of state schools 
to religion in Great Britain, France, Ger- 
many, and America, consult the Index 
under "Religion in the School." 

H. Thistleton Mark: Individuality and the 
Moral Aim in American Education (Lon- 
don, 1901), especially Chapters V. and X. 

J. H. Crooker: Religious Freedom in Amer- 
ican Education (Boston, 1903). A plea for 
a purely secular state and for purely sec- 
ular schools 



INDEX 



Academies, Christian, 325- 
330. 

Activity. See Expressive 
Activities. 

Adams, J., 417. 

Adaptation to the Pupil, 
107, 174, 176, 291. 

Adjustment to Divine En- 
vironment, 24. 

Adier. F., 422. 

Adolescence, 187 f., 173 f., 
247 fif.. 316 f., 329 f. 

Adult Point of View, Over- 
Emphasis of, 12. 

Aim of Education, 11-20. 

Aim of Sunday School, 
286 f. 

Alcuin, 142. 

American Journal of Re- 
ligious Psychology and 
Education, 408. 

Anger of Children, 57 f. 

Animism, 197 f., 218 ff. 

Anthropomorphism, 204. 

Apperception. 115 ff., 291, 
384. 

Application, Maliing the, 
163 ff. 

Assimilation, Mental. See 
Apperception. 

Association Boys (Maga- 
zine), 409. 

Association Outlook (Maga- 
zine), 254 (note 1). 



Attention. Securing and 

Holding, 112 ft. 
Augustlnianism, 378 ff., 

383. 
Authority In Education, 

72-79, 92 ff., 208 ff., 271- 

275, 312 (note). 
Authority in Religion, 312 

(note), 389-391, 401-403. 

Baldwin, J. M., 224 (note), 

413. 
Baptist View of Childhood, 

69. 
Barbe, W., 420. 
Barnes, Earl, 413, 414. 
Bellord. J., 368 (note). 
Bible, The, 

Adaptation of, to Pupils, 

160 flf., 294 ff. 
and Education, 391 ff. 
and State Schools, 355, 

357 (note), 358 f. 
and the Sunday School, 
287 (note), 291, 303, 
386. 
Authority of. 79 

(note 1). 
Historical Study of, 6, 

391 S. 
Ignorance of, 5, 386. 
Inspiration of, 264 f. 
In the Colleges, 331 f., 

335, 339, 341. 
Introduction to, 291. 



424 



INDEX 



Making the Application 
In Teaching, 163 fif. 

Memorising of, 160 ff. 
Bible-Study Union. 292. 
Biblical World (Magazine), 

408. 
Bibliography of Religious 

and Moral Education, 

407. 
Body and Mind, 43, 100 f., 

72. 138 f., 323 f. 
Boys, 408. See also Ado- 
lescence. 
Boys' Camps 324. 324 

(note). 
Briggs, L.B.B.,256 (note), 

419. 
Brown. E. G., 101 (note 3). 
Brown, M. C, 286 (note 

2), 302 (note), 408, 410, 

418. 
Buck, W., 419. 
Buddhism, 202 f. 
Bulwer-Lytton, E., 375 

(note). 
Burton, E. D., and Ma- 
thews, S.. 286 (note 1), 

301, 417. 
Bushnell, H., 54, 146, 

383 ff., 415 (Us). 
Butler, N. M., 18 (note), 

23 f., 29 (note), 42 

(note), 410. 

Canfleld, J. H., 420. 
Carr, J. W., 360 (note), 

420. 
Carter, P., 416. 
Catechetics, 158 flC., 309 f. 
Catholics and Education, 

86, 354 (note). 362, 

363 ff. 



Catholic Review of Re- 
views (Magazine), 409. 
Chamberlain, A. F., 229 

(note). 
Chapel Service In Colleges, 

340 f., 420. 
Character and Education, 

lift., 348 ff., 410-412. 
Character, Attainment of, 
58 S.. 103 f., 119 ff.. 166- 
168. 
Child, The, 

and the Adult, 104 f., 

248 f.. 169 f 
and Depravity, 44, 49- 

60, 65-69, 378 ff. 
and the Church. See 
Church, The, and the 
Child, 
and the Race. 211 f., 

218 ff. 
in Modern Education, 

12, 13 f., 82, 102 f. 
Jewish, 46 f.. 374. 
Mind of, 115 ff., 131, 
195, 204* ff.. 212 f., 
351, 412 f. 
Natural, 216 f. 
Childhood, 

Christian View of, 44 ff., 

65 ff., 415. 
Early, 230 ff. 
Later, 239 ff. 
Our Deficient Knowledge 
of, 226 f. 
Christ, 44 ff.. 63 f., 66 ff., 
87. 88, 121, 145-150, 
265, 374. 403 ff. 
Christian Academies and 

Colleges, 325 ff. 
Christian Education, 63 f., 
209. 



INDEX 



425 



Christianity and Modern 

Education. 85 ff. 
Christianity and Play, 

145 ff. 
Christianity, Social Aspects 

of, 312 (note), 337 f., 

396-403. 
Church Schools. See Chris- 
tian Academies and Col- 
leges, and Parochial 

Schools. 
Church, The, 

Age of Joining, 254 f., 
276. 307 ff. 

and Education, 70 ff., 83, 
85 f. 

and the Child, 65 ff., 
373 ff. 

and the Family, 284 f. 

and the State. 194 ff. 

as a School, 288, 317 f. 

Institutional, 267 (note). 

its Teaching Function, 
287 (note). 
Cities, Modem. 5, 16, 267 

(note), 278 f. 
Citizenship, Training for, 

337 f., 348. 401 f. 
Clark. F. E., 419. 
Clarke, Adam, 68. 
Clubs, 306 (note 1), 

173 ff, 232 f.. 418 f. 
Coe, G. A., 23 (note), 66, 

79 (note 2), 251 (note 

1), 254 (note 2), 261 

(note), 353 (note), 394 

(note), 410, 4.11. 414, 

415, 419. 
Cole,_L. T., 294 (note 2), 

309 (note 2). 
Colleges, Christian, 325 ff., 

419 f. 
Comenius, J. A., 80, 380. 



Community Life, Education 
through. See Social Ad- 
justment as Means of 
Education. 

Compayre, J. G., 18 (note), 
80 (note), 221 (note), 
413. 

Compulsion, 103 f., 112, 
188 f. 

Concrete Material in Edu- 
cation, 81, 83, 91 f., 
151 f.. 384, 393. 

Congregational View of 
Childhood. 67. 

Conscience, 223 f., 341 f. 

Conversation on Religion, 
276 f. 

Conversion, 65 ff.. 187 f., 
251, 302 ff., 394 f. 

Cooke, R. J.. 68. 415. 

Cressey, F. G.. 306 (note 
1) 419. 

Crooker, J. H., 420. 422. 

Cruelty of Children, 57. 

Curiosity of Children, 223, 
236 ff. 

Curriculum of the Sunday 
School. See Lesson Sys- 
tems. 

Davidson, T., 21 (note), 
42 (note), 80 (note), 
380 (note 2), 409, 411. 

Dawson, G. E., 294 (note 
2), 403 (note), 414,419. 

Decision-Day, 307 ff. 

Defects in Religious Edu- 
cation, 103 f.. 128 ff., 
144 f.. 158 ff., 401 ff. 

Democracy, 5, 401 f. 

Dependence. Sense of, 202, 
219. 



426 



INDE^ 



Denominational Schools. 

See Christian Academies 
and Colleges. 
Depravity, 44, 49-60, 65-69, 

378 £f. 
Development, 

and Growth, 150 f. 

Education as, 12. 88, 89, 
98 £f., 119 £f., 239, 286, 
328. 334 ff., 378 flf., 
389 f. 

Normal. 221 f. 

Periods of, 226£f., 
247 ff., 294 ff. 
Devotional Study of the 

Bible, 392. 
Devrey. J., 14 (note 2), 18 

(note). 19 (note), 36 

(note), 112 (note), 125 

(note), 410, 414. 
Dexter and Garlicls, 412. 
Discipline, 

in Academies, 329 f. 

in the Home, 136-142. 

in the Sunday School, 
302 f. 

in State Schools, 348. 
Doctrine, Teaching of, 168- 

170. 
Dogma, 70, 353 f. 
Dogmatic View of Chris- 
tianity, 312 (note), 315, 

342. 375 ff., 386. 389 ff. 
Dogmatism in Teaching, 

327. 
Doubts, Adolescent, 263 ff., 

346. 
Drummond. H., 312 (note). 
DuBois, Patterson, 114 

(note), 115 (note), 411, 

416. 
Dutton, S. T.. 294 (note 

2), 416. 



Earle, A. M., 52 (note). 
Ecclesiasticism, Influence 
of, upon Education, 
375 ff. 
Edgerton Case, The, 357 

(note). 
Education, 

and Authority. See Au- 
thority in Education, 
and Depravity, 44, 49- 

60, 65-69, 378 ff. 
and Environment, 109, 

181 ff. 
and Man's Destiny, 19- 

22. 
as Development. See De- 
velopment, Education 
as. 
Christian. 44 ff., 47 ff., 

63 f. 
Definitions of, 19, 33, 

120. 
General, 27-29. 
Histories of, 409 f. 
in Relation to Morals 
and Religion (Bibliog- 
raphy). 410 f. 
in Relation to the Body, 

100 f. 
its Aim, 11, 12 f., 14-19, 

22-25. 
its Factors, 11. 
Mediaeval, 70 f., 73. 
Modern, 12, 13, 70 ff., 

85 ff. 
of Israel, 34. 
of the Individual, 36 f. 
of the Race. 35 f. 
of Women, 257 (note). 
Religious, 

and Authority. 8eo 
Authority in Educa- 
tion. 



INDEX 



427 



and Pedagogical Prin- 
ciples, 86flf. 
and Religious Impulse. 
See Religious Im- 
pulse, The. 
Necessity of, 21 ff. 
Theory of. Summar- 
ised, 195 f. 
When it Should Begin, 

206 f. 
Why Neglected, 85 f. 
Educational Reformers, 80- 

82. 
Educational Review, The 

(Magazine), 409. 
Egoism of Children, oj. 
Ellis, A. C, 408. 
Emergency, the Present, in 
Moral and Religious Ed- 
ucation, 6, 358. 
Emotions, Training of, 258- 

261, 263. 
Emotional Conversions, 
251 (note 2), 308, 394 f. 
Ethical End of Education, 

17 ff.. 30 f., 348-350. 
Ethics, Study of, 262, 

348 f. 
Evangelism. See Revivals. 
Evolution, 42, 59. 
Expressive Activities, 83, 
90. 121-132, 139, 232 f., 
244 f., 262 f., 304 f.. 309^ 
313. 323. 377, 384. 

Faculty Psychology, The, 
30. 

Faith, 402. 

Family. Education in the, 
5, 26, 137 ff., 217 f., 
241 ff.. 267 (note), 271 ff., 
255 f ., 360 fif.. 384, 415 f. 



Family Life, Education 

for, 337 f. 
Fatigue of the Nerves, 

260 f. 
Fellowship. See Sharing 

of Life as Means of Edu- 
cation. 
Fights of Children. See 

Quarrels of Children. 
Fiske, John, 219. 
Fitch, J., 418, 
Fletcher, 68, 
Forbush, W. B., 304 (note 

2), 307 (note 1), 414, 

418. 
Foster, M. J. C, 418. 
Freedom in Education, 83, 

92 ff., 121 f., 130-135, 

136 f., 187-191, 277, 

339 f., 384. 
Froebel, F., 14, 82, 85, 131, 

212, 221 (note), 383, 

411. 

Games, 239 f. See also 

Play. 
Gang Impulse, The, 213, 

245 f., 250, 253 f., 255. 
Giving, 305. 
God, 

Anthropomorphism, 204. 

as Educator, 33 ff., 42, 
151 ff., 201 (note). 

as Environment of Man, 
25. 

Belief In, 203 f. 

Immanence of, 78, 390. 
Good and Evil Impulses in 

Children, 56 ff. 
Grace of God given to Chil' 

dren, 53 ff., 65 ff. 



428 



INDEX 



Gradation of Pupils, 291- 
294. 

Graded Bible School, The 
(Pamphlets), 416. 

Graded Lessons. See Les- 
son Systems. 

Greed of Children, 57. 

Habit, 26 f., 121, 188. 
Hall, G. S., 221 (note), 

407, 413, 414. 
Hall, Thomas C, 303 

(note). 
Harris, W. T., 353 (note.), 

421. 
Harrison, E., 142 (note).. 
Hartford School of Reli- 
gious Pedagogy, 289 

(note). 
Haslett, S. B., 229 (note), 

234 (note), 407, 413, 

417. 
Herbart, J. F., 81. 
Herbart Society Year-Booli, 

411, 413. 
Hero-Worship, 252 f. 
Hervey, W. L.. 289 (note), 

417. 
nibbard, F. G., 55 (note), 

68. 415. 
History as Study-Material, 

262. 
Holy Spirit, The, 55. 
Home, The. See Family, 

The. 
Home, H. H., 25 (note), 

410. 
Hughes. J. L., 131 (note), 

411. 
Hughes, R. E., 422. 



Ideal World, Formation of, 
200-206, 221-225. 

Imagination, 231 f., 2?3 ff. 

Imitation, 108, 171 ff., 
217 f. 

Impression and Expression, 
69 fC., 302-306, 313 t£. ; 
See also Expressive Ac- 
tivities. 

Impulse, Religious. See Re- 
ligious Impulse. 

Impulses, Good and Evil, 
in Children, 56-60. 

Individualism, 396 ff. 

Individual, Education and 
the, 16 f., 121. 

Infancy, 226 ff. 

Industrial Conditions, 
Influence of, upon Edu- 
catlon, 15 f., 312 
(note), 349, 396 flf. 
upon the Home, 278 f. 

Instruction and Education, 
83, 106 f., 225, 351, 353, 
375 flf., 386, 389 ; See 
also Intellectual Element 
in Religion, The. 

Intellectualist View of 
Man, 15. 

Intellectualist View of 
Education, 108. 

Interest, 109-114, 291 f. 

Internal and External Fac- 
tors in Education, 115 f.„ 
213 f. 

International Lessons, 292, 
300. 

Ireland, J., 367 (note), 
421. 

Israel, Education of. 34. 



INDEX 



429 



James, W., 18 (note), 114 

(note), 412 (Ms). 
Jastrow, M., 38 (note). 
Jesus. See Christ. 
Jewish Church, 374, 375. 
Jews, The, 354 (note). 
Jones, R. M., 414. 
Junior Societies, 317-319. 

Kansas, University of, 345 

(note). 
Kindergarten, The, 133, 

229. 
King, H. C, 394, 414, 415. 
King I., 112 (note), 227 

(note), 413. 
Kingdom of God, The, 45 f., 

399 f. 
Kirljpatriclj, E. A., 413. 
Knowledge as an End of 

Education, 14 f. 

Laberthonniere, L., 79 
(note 2), 368 (note). 

Laboratory, The, in Edu- 
cation, 154 ff. 

Laurie. S. S., 409. 

Law, Training in Respect 
for, 221 f., 230 f., 241 flC., 
263, 273 ff. 

Laymen and Education, 
70, 287 (note). 

Laymen, The Religious 
Education of, 337 f. 

"Learn by Doing," 124 ft. 

Lessing, 35. 

Lesson-Systems, 

Graded, 291 f., 294-300, 

300 (note). 
Uniform, 287 (note). 

Liberty. See Freedom Iq 
Education. 



Library, 

for S u n d a y-S c h o o 1 

Teachers, 290 f. 
for the Sunday School, 
303 f. 
Lies of Children, 56 f. 
Life, Religion as, 200 f., 
312 (note), 334 ff., 
373 f., 387-391, 
Loba, J. F., 415. 
Logos, The, 201 (note). 
Love and Law, 221 f., 273 ff. 
Love, Divine and Human, 

221 f., 265 ff. 
Luther, M., 80. 
Luxury, Influence of, upon 

Children, 280 ff. 
Mackenzie, J. S., 120 

(note). 
Man, 

as Educator, 33 ff., 39 f. 
Body and Mind. See 

Body and Mind. 
His Religious Nature, 
22 f., 37 ff., 195 ff., 
208 ff., 390. 
Intellectualist View of, 
15. 
Manual Training, 154 ff., 

244, 348. 
Maplewood Church, Mai- 
den, Mass., 306 (note 2). 
Maps in the Sunday 

School, 303, 304. 
Mark, H. T., 420, 422. 
Mather, Cotton, 51 f. 
McKinney, A. H., 417. 
McMurry, C. A., 410, 412. 
McMurry, F. M., 412. 
Mead, G. M., 307 (note), 
417. 



430 



INDEX 



) 



Mediaeval Education, 12 f., 

TOfif. 
Memory Work, 160 ff., 240, 

287 (note). 
Menzies, A., 198. 
Message of the College to 

the Church (book), 419. 
Method in Education in 

General, 6, 96 f., 174. 
Method in Religious Edu- 
cation, 26, 96, 373. 
Methodist View of Child- 
hood, 67 f. 
Ministers, Training of, 289. 
Missions and Missionary 

Biography, 258, 262, 341. 
Modern Education. See 

Education, Modern. 
Money, Influence of, upon 

Children, 279, 283, 305. 
Monroe, W. S., 407. 
Moody, D. L., 312 (note). 
Moral Health of Society, 5. 
Moral Law. See Law, 

Training in Respect for. 
Morals and Religion, 7, 

286. 
Morbidness, 260 f., 315, 

342. 
Munroe, J. P., 18 (note), 

80 (note), 287 (note 1), 

381, 409. 
Music in the Sunday 

School, 302 (note). 

National Educational Asso- 
ciation, 408. 

National Herbart Society 
Year-Book, 411, 413. 

Natural Impulses, 58 ff. 

Nature as Educator, 33 f., 
40-43. 



Nature-Study, 83, 117. 

Nerve-Fatigue, 260 f. 

New Birth, 65 ff. 

New Education, The. See 
Modern Education. 

Normal Class. See Teacher- 
Training. 

Normal Religious Develop- 
ment, 47 fiE., 221-225. 

Obedience, 92 ff. See also 
Law, Training in Re- 
spect for. 

Object-Teaching, 156 ff. 

Organised Classes, 306. 

race, E. A., 352 (note), 
421. 

Parent and Child, 221, 242, 
255-257, 271 ff., 308. 

Parents, Vocation of, 39 f. 

Parochial Schools, 363- 
369. 

Pastor, The, 289, 306 f., 
308, 318. 

Pattison, T. H., 290 (note 
2). 

Paul, 35, 101. 

Pease, G. W., 418. 

Peabody, F. G., 419. 

Pedagogical Seminary 
(Magazine), 409. 

Periodicals and Proceed- 
ings, 408. 

Periods of Development, 
226 fif., 247 fif. 

Personal Influence in Edu- 
cation, 171 ff., 218-225, 
255 fif., 300, 310 f., 348, 
352, 354, 387. 

Personality, 98, 119 f., 
243 f. 



INDEX 



431 



Personal Religion, 249. 
Pestalozzi, 81, 85, 131. 
Physical Training. See 

Body and Mind. 
Pictures in the Sunday 

School, 304, 305. 
Piety and Education, 389 ff. 
Pike, J. G., 52. 
Plato, 100. 
Play, 136, 142-150, 229, 

239-241, 348. 
Pledges in Young People's 

Societies, 321 f. 
Popular Education, 82 f., 

87 f., 312 (note) ; See 

also State, The, and 

Education. 
Popular Government and 

Religion, 5. 
Power as an End of Edu- 
cation, 15 f. 
Practical Education, 21. 
Prayer, Family, 217 f., 

283 f. 
Presbyterian View of the 

Child, 66 f. 
Press, The, as Educator, 

183 ff. 
Prince, J. T., 422. 
Principles of Religious Ed- 
ucation (booli), 411, 414, 

417. 
Protestantism, 367-369, 

380 f., 402. 
Psychology and Education, 

6, 29 f., 100 f., 127 f., 

287, 291, 412 ff. 
Psychology of Adolescence, 

247 f. 
Psycho-Physical Organism. 

See Body and Mind. 



Publicity, Effect of upon 

the Young, 185, 261, 

316 f. 
Public Schools, 5f., 348 ff. 

See also State, The, and 

Education. 
Punishment, 136-142, 230, 

271 ff. 
Puritan Attitude toward 

Children, 51 f., 379 f. 
Pythagoras, 100. 

Quarrels of Children, 

149 f., 213, 245. 
Questions, Children's. See 

Curiosity of Children. 
Quick, B. H., 80 (note), 

409, 

Race, The Human, 

Education of, 35 f., 126, 

151-153. 
Religious Heritage of, 
23 f. 
Reading In the Home, 283. 
Reason and Imagination, 

233-236. 
Recapitulation, Theory of, 

211-215. I. 
Reformation,' The, 380 f. 
Regeneration. See New 

Birth. 
Religion, 

and Life, 200 f., 275, 
334-336, 341-344, 373 f., 
387-391. 
and Modern Education, 

70 ff., 85 ff., 334. 
and Morals, 7, 286. 
and Sectarianism, 356. 
Intellectual Element In, 



432 



INDEX 



168-170, 262-265, 284, 
308, 338 ff., 375 ff. 

Psychology of, 414 ; See 

also Religious Impulse, 

The ; Psychology of 

Adolescence, etc. 

Religious Education. See 

Education, Religious. 
Religious Education Asso- 
ciation, The, 408, 417. 

419. 
Religious Authority. See 

Authority in Religion. 
Religious Impulse, The, 

22 f., 37 ff., 60-63, 195 ff., 

208 ff., 390. 
Religious Preparation for 

Entering College, 345- 

347. 
Revivals, 312 (note), 382 f., 

384, 394 f. 
Riis, J., 416. 
Rishell, C. W., 68. 
Roark, R. N., 412. 
Rosenkranz, J. K. F., 33 

(note). 
Rousseau, J. J., 81. 

Scholasticism, 70 ff., 77 ff., 

375 flf. 
School, The Sunday School 

as a, 26, 287. 

The Church as a, 288. 
Science, Modern, 15, 71, 86. 
Scientific Spirit, 71 (note). 
Scriptures. See Bible, The. 
Scudder, H. E., 379. 
Sectarianism, 327, 350, 

354, 356. 
Secularisation of the 

Schools, 70-74, 85 f., 351. 



Seeley, L., 421. 

Self-Assertion, 250, 402. 

Self-Consciousness, 248. 

Self-Expression. See Ex- 
pressive Activities. 

Self, Man's Real, 99, 119 f., 
203. 

Self-Real isation, 119 ff., 
79 flf., 204 flf. 

Sensori-Motor Arc, The, 
127 f. 

Sentiments, Training The, 
258-261. 

Service, The, of Man as 
Means of Education, 258, 
260, 262 f., 278, 283, 
305, 309, 339, 341, 346. 

Sex, Teaching Regarding, 
237, 238 (note), 256 
(note). 

Sharing of Life as Means 
of Education, 174-183, 
255 flf., 271-277, 329. 

Sheldon, H. D., 420. 

Smith, W. W., 417. 

Smyth, N., 43 (note). 

Social Adjustment as Aim 
of Education, 16 f., 19 f., 
21 f., 83 f., 94 f., 396- 
403. 

Social Adjustment as 
Means of Education, 
167 f., 171 ff., 230 f., 239- 
243, 245 f ., 205-267, 328 f., 
342-344, 348. 

Social Aspects of Chris- 
tianity, 312 (note), 394, 
398-401. 

Social Instinct, The, 224, 
248 f., 253 f.. 258. 



INDEX 



433 



Social Problem, The, and 

Education, 396-403. 
Social Service. See Service 

of Man as Means of Edu- 
cation. 
Society, Moral Health of, 

5. 
Sociology, 262. 
Spalding, J. L., 42 (note), 

356, 364 (note). 368 

(note). 
Spencer, H., 18 (note), 142, 

274 (note), 416. 
Spiritual Life of Sunday- 
School Teachers, 21)1, 

300, 310 f. 
Stanley, H. M., 420. 
Starbuck, E. D., 23 (note), 

251 (notel), 255 (note), 

410, 414. 
State, The, 

and the Church, 194 ff. 

and Education, 70 f., 

82 f., 85 f., 326, 344 f., 

348 £E., 420. 
State Universities, 344 f. 
Stewart, G. B., 415. 
Stories and Story Telling, 

229, 231 f., 233-236, 299, 

304, 374. 
Studies in Education 

(Magazine), 409. 
Suggestion, 171-173. 
Sully, J., 58 (note), 163 

(note), 219 (note), 222 

(note 2). 
Sunday School, The, 

Aim, etc., 286 f. 

and Junior Society, 310. 

and State Schools, 301, 
354. 360 ff. 



and Young People's So- 
cieties, 320 f. 

Movement, 385 f. 

Superintendent, 289, 
293 f. 

Teachers, 362, 290 f., 
300, 310 f. 
Sunday-School Outlook, 

The (book), 417. 

Tabernacle Church, The, 

Chicago, 306 (note 2). 
Taylor, A. R., 413. 
Teacher, The, 

and the Child, 102. 
310 f., 329, 342 £C., 348. 

Vocation of, 39 f. 
Teachers' Meeting, The, 

290. 
Teacher-Training for the 

Sunday School, 262, 

290 f., 337 f. 
Text-Books. Function of, 

154. 
Theological Schools, 289. 
Thurber, C. H., 420. 
Thwing, C. F., 420. 
Tompkins, A., 18 (note). 
Tracy, F., 413. 
Trumbull, H. C. 407, 409, 

418. 

UUrick, D. S., 292 (note). 

Unconscious Element, 
The, in Education, 171- 
174, 180 f., 310 f. 

Uniform Lessons. See Les- 
son Systems. Uniform. 

United States Commission- 
er of Education, Reports 
of, 421. 

Universal Education. See 
Popular Education, 



INDEX 



VanDyke, H.. 415. 

VanLiew.C. C.,212 (note). 

Vinet. A., 311 (note). 

Virtue Learned by Prac- 
tice. 349. 

Voluntaristic View of 
Man. See Intellectualist 
View of Man. 

Volunteer Movement for 
Foreign Missions, 341. 

Vows and Pledges in 
Young People's Societies, 
321 f. 

Watson, 68. 
Wesley, J.. 68. 
Wesleyan Revival, 382 f. 
Wliedon, D. D., 68. 
White, E. E., 421. 
Will, Enlisting the, 187- 

191. 
Willcox. G, B., 309, 



Wisconsin Supreme Court 
Decision regarding the 
Bible in the Schools, 357. 

Women, Higher Education 
of, 257 (note). 

Wonder-Stories, 233-236. 

Work with Boys (Maga- 
zine), 408, 416, 418. 

Worship, 258, 260, 276 
(note), 301. 302, 305, 
306 f., 399 f. 

Young, E. F., 422. 

Young Men's Christian As- 
sociations, The, 254. 312, 
323, 341 f. 

Young People's Societies, 
258, 261, 288. 312 ff., 
320 f. 

Young Women's Christian 
Associations. The, 312, 
341 f. 



l&Nly3Q 



